


Avowal

by AddriannaDestiny



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Smut, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2015-02-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 06:07:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 74,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2611217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AddriannaDestiny/pseuds/AddriannaDestiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is only one rule during the biggest night of New Orleans, no one goes home alone. Au/meme</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Mardi Gras

The street was so packed that he had to squeeze his way between the crowd just to move along in the sidewalk, at this point crossing the street was the equivalent of walking on water but alas the Pub he  _really_ wanted was on another other street so with a determined sigh Klaus started cutting his way through the busy parade.

The dancing people kept on hitting him but they were the ones getting hurt, the steel on his carcass made him immune to everything, nonetheless he was elated to finally reach the opposite sidewalk.

Klaus looked up to the balconies filled with girls flashing for necklaces and boys spilling beer everywhere, they all flocked to the best viewing spots claiming attention to themselves and that precise show was a dull repetition that he easily ignored.  
He headed for the Pub in a calm attire, the frenzy around him did nothing to disturb his cool swag and now that it was a bit easier to move along the crowd he glanced up, guiding his eyes higher than the balconies this time.

He caught quite the number of vampires jumping from roof to roof, standing stoically on ledges while looking down on the city they controlled.  
It had to be the biggest holiday for them as well because tourists were abundant, still most of the New Orleans population was bound to disappear tonight, of that Klaus was sure.

Nevertheless none of it mattered to him, he planned on feeding vehemently as well, it was why he was here a day earlier than expected, he wanted to catch the famous last night of Mardi Gras and enjoy a good meal.  
His elected Pub was now just a few minutes down the street and he curiously hinted on a smile when a big group of girls came his way.

The assembly was tight and they were all laughing as if they were close friends but aside from the genuine happiness, what attracted him the most was the detail that they were all wearing vintage dresses.  
He really enjoyed the throwback as they all walked towards him in the colorful dresses that revealed a lot of cleavage, he easily placed them back around the time New Orleans was founded and his mind was filled with images that made him want to grin.

As a first line of girls went by him the second wave of girls was caught up with a street band which delayed them, the group was now reduced to three girls and they were all one prettier than the one before.  
They danced happily with the band and inevitably stole the attention of the surrounding crowd, in the middle of the joyful group, a girl stood out to Klaus.

She was blonde and her hair was wavy and bouncy with long curls, she had a truly mesmerizing smile that was captivating and she danced with effortless twirls that made the music come evermore alive.  
The people around Klaus were sucked into the improvised moving party and danced with the band adding to the trio and going up the street with them.

The blonde in the torrid yellow dress stayed a little behind in her own carefree dance and during one of her spins she noticed the gawking look from Klaus.  
With a sweet smile she buckled her knees giving him a little bow and he effortlessly returned the smile and the greeting that came by lowering his head although he kept his eyes on the girl.

She giggled and then twirled her way up the street to meet the others, as she went by Klaus the smallest spin she gave was lazy so she could catch his eyes again.  
He squinted not sure if she was doing it on purpose but she bit her lip languorously as she danced to the music and for the briefest second it was as if she was merely dancing for him, and it was extraordinary how he imagined her dancing in front of a fireplace in his mind.

Their eyes danced a little equally before she rushed after the others, the candid moment was interrupted but Klaus felt compelled to look after her.  
She was laughing loudly with one of the girls who was waiting for her, they entwined hands and surely secrets that were whispered between them like two furtive creatures of mischievousness but the blonde slowly looked back.

Klaus smirked knowing she was searching for him and his ego boasted like it was supposed to, he turned his back on the intriguing blonde and went for his much-needed drink.  
As expected the place was overcrowded and drinks were going around hand in hand along with the money, actually getting inside the place was out of the question so Klaus grabbed the first guy he found less inebriated and compelled him to fetch him a drink.

A few minutes later the guy returned carrying a bottle of expensive Bourbon, Klaus chose a red car parked near the Pub and sat on the hood enjoying the alcohol.  
The crowd seemed bigger now and Klaus thoroughly enjoyed his drink while the local humans enjoyed the biggest festivity of the year.

He was half way through his bottle when a few girls with those period dresses showed up again merged with the major dancing mass and instantly he searched for the beauty in yellow, he didn't spot her anywhere and his interest in the party was wading as fast as his alcohol so Klaus took the remaining Bourbon and headed up some random street.  
There wasn't a particular flow but it felt like he was going against the tide somehow as everyone seemed to be coming down the street while he went up.

A tall girl slammed right against his chest, she openly flirted with him touching all the necklaces she had but Klaus simply went around her before she lifted her shirt.  
A few minutes later and after dodging a few other blunt hits, someone did spike his interest; the girl in the yellow dress was on her tiptoes trying to see above the main human river, obviously she got separated from her friends and was now looking for them.

She had the cutest frowning face and pursed lips until she smiled relieved, she had spotted someone familiar across the street and called for them but with the loud music it was hard to hear anything and she decided to go through the crowd.  
It was not possible to go far and she ended up bumping into a couple of guys, she apologized quickly but they were all over her with cheap remarks and naughty smiles.

She turned her back on them intent on ignoring them when one of the guys grabbed her wrist yanking her body to him, she was pissed about the move and pushed him away but another guy from the group crassly grabbed her ass.  
She turned to face the jerk who groped her and threw her fist into his face before he blinked.

The action left everyone around them laughing and the guys stunned, the one who had been quiet until now reacted by taking a menacing step towards her but his way was cut off by a big guy.  
She was confused with the emerging view into a rather large back but she liked that the man commanded enough respect for the other morons to walk away and she hoped there was a nice face attached to the big body in front her.

When he turned around she smiled. "Thanks stranger." she recognized the hotty from earlier.

Klaus stepped closer to her with a growing smile. "It was my pleasure sweetheart."

She had one good look at him, it covered everything from his beautiful dirty-blonde hair to some magnificent lines on his cheeks, the fiery blue eyes were striking but his scruff pulled a second long look from her.  
He was so hot that she was happy with the second chance to see him on such a hectic night.

"Although I'm not sure how much I helped, considering how you were on your way to take them all out by yourself." he sounded terribly amused.

"Seriously, I expected the creeps to come out, it's party day and my boobs are touching my chin." she made the cutest roll with her eyes.

Klaus burst into laughter. "Right you are sweetheart." he pointed at her raunchy dress and to an outstanding view. "Nevertheless …" he calmed down. "They should have constricted their hands to themselves."

She had bright blue eyes that started a small flirt with his. "They think this is beads bait but I was tricked into the Founders Float…"

"I should have arrived sooner." he said regretful that he missed it.

"I think your timing is impeccable." she lowered her eyes enough just to see if he would follow her lead when she lifted them.

When he did, they both broke into this awkward but playful smile.  
Although it seemed like they were alone, the parade wasn't stopping at all and a group of people came from behind her, taking her with them as they all moved compact as a pack.

She tried unsuccessfully getting out of the dancing crew but she was losing the battle fast and had no choice but to go along with them before she lost her balance and propelled to the ground.  
They were also cutting her view to the handsome stranger and she grimaced because she didn't have a name to go with the wonderful accent and the dimpled smile.

She hadn't drifted that far though when a big hand grabbed her wrist, she was about to protest when she was pulled out of the crowd and cradled against a chest.  
When her feet found an unmoving ground, she blinked to find him looking at her with the most confident and cocky look she had seen on a man.

"I'm Caroline." she said fearlessly, like she wasn't affected by him at all.

"I'm Nik." his voice dropped visibly taken by her buoyancy.

"Are you a frequent tourist to the Mardi Gras?"

"I have been occasionally over the years…"

"So you know the first rule of a good Carnival night…" her eyes dropped to his lips.

Klaus ran his tongue across a beautiful pair of raspberry softness imagining how it would feel to run his tongue across her red luscious lips.  
On her end Caroline rubbed her thighs together, for some uncanny reason she was thinking how it would feel to have him between them.

Hell, uncanny was an expensive word for simple lust.  
The man radiated sex, everything about him was raw, nasty and  _take me now_ sex; from his clothes, the chains of a few necklaces she caught, the way he looked at her, his intense vigorous smell, to the way he walked and the power he oozed and that she sensed when he took her wrist.

"Kiss me." she demanded her brain to stop rationalizing with her body that clearly wanted him.

He looked at her like he was about to throw her against the wall and take her right there but his strength was also coiled to fit his demands and by Lord, she was aroused.  
She inched closer to him but she didn't take the dare any further, it was up to him to show how much he wanted her.

Klaus leaned over with a gentle caress of her cheek, he slowly trapped her upper lip between his but he didn't last there and kissed her lower lip next.  
By the time she moved her lips eager to taste his properly he was already breathing into her mouth and for the longest second they remained with open mouths and shared gushes of breathing.

Then Klaus moved his tongue, lazily poking hers, when she motioned her tongue to meet his, Klaus swept her tongue in a slow way.  
He tasted her tongue sweetly before curling in the right way to engage her into a deep kiss that started with his initiative but Caroline was far from letting him do all the work.

She glued her body to his and her tongue worked hard against his, the kiss became an incredible struggle for power, whenever one of them motioned a forfeit the other would claim a swift win by redrawing and waiting for the next teasing moment.  
Caroline stroked his neck and tilted her head aiming for a longer kiss and he did not disappoint.

Klaus powerfully cradled her neck in his hand while he invaded her mouth with a hungry move, he searched for every corner that he craved to explore and tasted the side of her tongue before truly dancing with hers in a heated manner.  
He pulled back his tongue just as she winced in delight and while he rubbed her hot cheek with his thumb, he rascally smirked at her.

Caroline's breath stubbornly tried to get away from her control but she still smiled at him. "Hot, an amazing kisser and with an accent to die for…" she bit her lip. "Where's the big fault?"

"I kill people for exercise." he was playfully roguish although he was honest.

She motioned to bite his lips but teasingly pulled away at the last second. "Are you planning to kill me?"

"The thought of making you scream has crossed my mind during the last minute…" he whispered while his hand felt the curves on her upper body.

As he glided his hand across her waist and hauled her closer to him Caroline moaned. "My house is five minutes away from here." she said before kissing him.

* * *

He pressed her against the front door with a strong body, her fingers were knotted with his hair and she cursed her dress because it stopped her from freely moving her legs, she wanted to wrap them around him and with that in thought, she stopped the kiss.  
It was a chance to breathe and she quickly guided a hand inside the top of her dress.

Klaus' eyes landed there following her action and he was smiling when he lifted his eyes to meet hers, he was pure malice and sex as he kept his chin low but pierced her with a deep pair of naughty eyes.

She smiled waving the key she just plucked from between her squeezed breasts. "I had to improvise with the old clothes."

He leaned forward searching her lips but teasingly he only nudged them with the tip of his tongue and he liked that she sounded frustrated.  
He took the key from her hand and pushed it inside the lock while he granted her a full kiss that left her with weak knees, when they broke the kiss he turned the key on the lock and stepped back a few inches.

Caroline realized he was silently giving her the choice of shutting him down now or accepting what would happen once they entered her house, and she gulped down aware of the man he was for providing her such a choice.

She opened her door without taking her eyes away from him and then she grabbed him by the neck and pulled him inside of her home with her. "I invite you in." she breathed before devouring his lips with her own.

Klaus tensed within those first seconds because she knew what he was and she wasn't scared of him at all, as the notion started arousing him instead of stunning him, Klaus returned the urgent kisses.  
They pressed lips, heating each other with a series of kisses that came one after another and Caroline removed his jacket eager to see what was hiding under the cool leather jacket and the dark Henley.

Her hands felt a lot of muscles on a solid body but he was feeling her as well, somehow she was now pinned against a wall while he kissed his way down her neck, obviously familiar with the garments his hand was sneaking under the wide dress and all the layers that complemented it.  
Caroline gasped slightly when she felt his touch on her bare skin, he only stopped the soft caress when he reached her ass and knowingly outlined her underwear.

They locked eyes while he licked his lips.  
"Laced boxers?" he tried his educated guess.

"They are my favorite…" her reply was easy and bubbly. "And for me the authenticity thingy ended with the corset."

He chuckled enchanted with her adorable way of speaking. "It's a good look on you love."

She dragged a hiss when both his hands went up her torso until they found her breasts, squeezing them over the dress.  
Caroline wasn't done processing how big his hands were and how strong they were and he was already invading her mouth with a demanding tongue.

This kiss had her wishing there wouldn't be so many clothes still between them and she pulled his shirt up expecting to change exactly that, he helped her enough by hauling away from her and pushing the shirt over his head.  
Caroline paused her breath with the revealed sight.

He had a lot of necklaces.  
And a tattoo that started just above his heart and went all the way to his arm, the feather and the flock of birds was the most beautiful piece of art she had seen and she took time out from the heated make-out session to outline the ink with her fingertips.

"That's so beautiful…" she said out loud what she was thinking inwardly.

"I drew it myself."

Caroline looked at him with a teasing smile, he sounded just like someone bragging. "Tortured soul with a bit of an artist escape?"

"My soul is just fine love, it's just not there." he easily answered.

Right, she was having a fast one-night stand with a vampire and there were so many ways this could go wrong that she should be listing all of those instead of undoing the intricate knot of her dress.  
But she pulled the satin piece that was keeping her dress together and once it was loose enough she glided the dress down her shoulders.

It was his turn to admire her beauty and he was serious about it as he took her hand urging her to move away from the wall, the dress now plummeted to the ground and before him was a stunning blonde with legs for days and exquisite ivory skin.  
Caroline was still in her black high heels, the laced black boxers matched the dark tight corset which undeniably made her the sexiest woman he had seen in centuries.

There was a unique feel of innocence about Caroline that was perfectly matched with a sense of wayward that he hadn't quite seen yet; in short, she was hot as hell and he wanted to burn in all of that fire.  
He literally assaulted her lips, Klaus gave her no time to breathe between sizzling hungry kisses but she wasn't complaining at all, she was stroking his neck and answering him entirely.

Klaus cupped her ass and she responded by lacing her legs around his waist while he scooped her up the wall.  
"Where's your bed?" he asked her when she required a little air to breathe.

"First door on the left." she scrapped the back of his neck with her nails.

He made this deep sound replying physically to the provocation and carried her to the bedroom as they were, his hand on her back and her legs locked around him.  
They never stopped kissing on the way there and once inside he slowly laid her on the bed, she was forced to unwrap her legs from around him because he wasn't lying with her, instead he stood at the foot of the bed watching her.

Caroline's tongue flicked across her sore lips while she moved a foot between his legs, rubbing his growing erection with a stunning black stiletto; she was telling him exactly what she wanted.  
Klaus opened his belt and her eyes remained on him as he revealed himself to her, she could have reeled back the dreamy smirk but he was extraordinary.

Klaus was massive, now that he was fully naked in front of her, she could see exactly how colossal and big his entire body was, and she couldn't wait to feel him completely.  
Only that Klaus had bigger plans for now, he crawled his way to her, entangling his fingers with her boxers and slowly pulling them down her long soft legs; unwilling to wait any longer he touched her to find out how much she already wanted him.

Caroline's back sank into the bed reacting to the hand between her legs.  
She felt wet and heavenly warm to him and Klaus groaned anticipating how tight as a vise she would be, like a piece of a puzzle perfectly nuzzling and fitting him but there was still something he had to do before he could feel her enveloping him, he had to taste her.

Her heart and breath shot in a crazy race when he lowered his head between her legs, the sensation of his tongue tasting all of her arousal made her bite her lip so hard that it was white under her teeth and she would have brought blood out of it if it wasn't for the way he made her gasp in pleasure when he began to suck on her folds, flicking his tongue inside of her as he well pleased.

Caroline's hand flew to his hair overtaken by the blissful torture and wanting him to stay just where he was.  
Klaus obliged, hell he did more than that, he took one of her legs and placed it over his shoulder, he caressed the skin on her stomach with one hand while the other became busy where his tongue had been.

Caroline's heel started to dig into his flesh as he drove her closer to a shattering end with two invading fingers that started going in and out of her with skill.  
The looming orgasm was leaving her panting and moaning incoherently but still Caroline took back charge on her situation.

"Wait Nik… not like this." she murmured out of breath.

Klaus immediately halted and looked at her wondering if she was somehow uncomfortable with the way she was so exposed to him.

"I want my first orgasm with you, to be with  _you_ inside of me." she had a hard time drawing back air and speaking up.

God, he became harder than he was, he was about to explode by just looking at her, adding to her implication that she expected him to pleasure her more than once, she looked flustered and incredibly sensual to him.  
Her eyes sparkled in lust and her chest was clenched inside of the tight bustier, she only inhaled in short gushes eyeing him unwavering.

With a power about him that left her in awe, Klaus straightened enough to enter her with one deep thrust while her leg was still over his shoulder.  
Caroline's bay of delight filled the room as she came hard before he moved a second time.

Klaus stroked her burning cheek, her eyes were closed and she was struggling to breathe, she took her leg down from his shoulder trying to lull from a big high that was shuddering, at first he was simply struck by how beautiful she looked but then he noticed how her breath was really coming out harshly.

"I can't breathe Nik…" she muttered with difficulty.

Easily and quickly Klaus tore her corset apart freeing her from the really tight restrains.  
With a deep intake her chest was filled with air and she quietly murmured a  _thank you_.

"You are more than welcome sweetheart…" he wandered his eyes to the stunning breasts now naked to him, they were gloriously round and big and her pink nipples were perky beauties among a majestic milky-white complexion.

"Touch me…" Caroline asked him with a rasp in her voice.

He reacted to the request with glee and cupped each breast with a hand, he looked up catching Caroline closing her eyes and lazily biting a finger when he brushed her nipples with his thumbs; defiantly she was the very definition of red passion to him.  
Klaus' lowered a hand to caress her along her rib cage while he took a nipple into his mouth, gently sucking on it which propelled a fantastic sound from her, craving to hear that again he alternated between licking and nibbling that sensitive area.

Caroline's world went blank, his attention towards the details was leaving her weak and close to a lot of mumbled cursing nonsense; her legs went over his, she brushed her shoes against his skin so she could lose them and all the while her hands made a random pattern on his back while Klaus left that rosy numb spot to kiss his way up to her neck.  
Her nails grazed his shoulder plates when his warm lips rested above a vein that was pumping blood all too vividly for him, he felt her entire body stiffen upon the possibility that he would bite her.

"I won't hurt you Caroline." he said.

She searched for his eyes, taken by the tenderness in his voice and by the usage of her name.

"Do you trust me that I won't?" he brushed her chin with a sweet motion of his thumb.

She nodded while running the tip of her fingertip along his spine, she started just under his neck and only stopped down on his lower back, when she rested her hand there she silently asked him to get inside of her again.  
Klaus did so but only after stealing a long kiss from her, then as he invaded her inch by inch her walls closed up tightly around him and the feel of a perfect union started to hover over them.

She adapted to how deep he had to go in order to fully stretch and fill her and then the feeling of having Klaus pushing so slowly into her was amazing.  
Although he was hitting a very responsive spot inside of her repeatedly there was only pleasure and Caroline couldn't remember sex being ever this good.

She groaned but right after that she released this throaty moan because he hauled a little away from her chest so he could develop this commanding pace that made the bed under them rock with every move.  
Caroline's eyes settled on the man on top of her, his necklaces dangled with every thrusting movement, his upper body was wide and the muscles rippled with every demanding take he made of her body.

She reached out to touch him, cleaning the sweat forming over his tattoo she moved her palm across his heart before she cupped his cheek.  
Klaus felt his face muscles tensing under her delicate touch, he gritted his teeth together because he wanted to pound into her, to consume her with every last bit of strength left in him but something in Caroline evoked care and other things he had long forgotten.

The will to succumb to his predator instincts were coy to the real will to pleasure her endlessly, it overtook everything that was in his nature and even the need to make sure she was all right became a priority.

"Let me be on top." she said in a low but assertive voice.

Was she reading his mind or simply being bossy as he imagined the sassy girl to be?  
Whatever it was, he liked it a lot and rolled them over.

Caroline stroked his cheek while brushing his lips for another kiss, then she sat up and rested her knees on the bed, she started riding Klaus with a cruel slowness that made him growl.  
Her hair began to sway along with her body and she rested her hands on his chest, when her tempo became quicker Klaus closed his eyes surrendered to a pleasure that was hers to rip as she pleased and only for him to enjoy.

Caroline moved faster only to slow down again every time she fully took him in, she leaned back a little while he traveled his hands across her body before reaching her ass and pulling her to him, he started to answer her invitations with thrusts that would meet hers and after a few deliberate rocking moves she smiled elated with how good it all felt and quickened her dance while straddling him.  
Their orgasm rose together as both shared control of how hard and fast they were going, still Caroline was the one on top riding them to a bliss that was pure but visceral like something truly unknown to both.

The final cry out came at the same time and Caroline trapped him within her with a final vise that welcomed his big release.  
The following waves clenching her still around him were a sign that she was experiencing the biggest orgasm of her life and when he buckled his hips up she whimpered because although he wasn't hard anymore, it still felt incredible to have him just there, deeply lodged inside of her.

Quivering, Caroline slumped against his damp body, covering him with hers and she smiled when he held her close inside of a strong embrace. "Best Mardi Gras of my existence…" she panted tired. "Seriously..."

Klaus joyfully stroked her back, his grin was worth the thousand words he chose to keep to himself because the marvelous blonde would soon fall asleep just where she landed.  
And having her relaxed enough to sleep on his chest was the best way he could think of to end such a spontaneous ravishing night.

* * *

Caroline battled with her eyelids wishing to stay in bed all day but there was something bothering her, something making pressure points across her face and with a frown she opened her eyes.  
Instantly she fixated her eyes on Klaus, he was outlining her face therefore causing that pressure that woke her up.

"You are very beautiful Caroline…"

Caroline forgave him for the rude start of her day because of his chosen words. "You didn't sneak out as soon as I fell asleep?" she genuinely sounded curious.

He planned on it but then he watched her sleep and the hours went by unnoticed, with a smile he decided to answer her. "I was waiting for you to wake up."

She frowned again like she was calling him out on a lie.  
Klaus swept her cheek one last time before leaving the bed, he picked up his boxers and the Jeans under her stare.

"Nik…"

Her sweet voice made him look back to face her, she was out of the bed and holding a sheet around her body. "I've lived a great deal of nights sweetheart but last night was…" his smile was so genuine and so innocent that his eyes sparkled because of it. "Notable."

Her smile grew and her eyes were two wonderful shining beacons of light, much like she looked now, wrapped in a sheet with wild curls framing her dazzling face.  
Klaus stepped closer to her and Caroline wanted to touch his chest, to caress that wonder one last time before he left but she was suddenly scared of coming across as needy.

"I want you to touch me." he said looking at her attentively, like he was drawing her face in his mind.

Caroline's eyes shot up to him wary, was he using some mind trick on her?

"I want to remember the way you've warmed my cold skin…" he told her with a husky but honest tone.

"I liked warming you." she cutely said avoiding a blush by looking away from him.

Onto a crack on a very solid shell Klaus lifted her chin so she would look at him. "One last kiss before I leave the domains of a goddess to never return."

"If I kiss you, do you promise to forget where I live?" she teased him almost wishing it wasn't a tease and that she could admit that she wanted to see him again.

"I will leave you with that avowal and my invitation inside this house revoked as well." he assured her serious.

Caroline moved her lips eager against his, she mapped his chest and then his back while the deep kiss lasted.  
It wasn't raw and passionate, instead it was a long soft caress of tongues and tilted heads and when they parted ways from each other, there was still a lasting will to kiss one more time.

This time around the kiss was only a tender melt of lips and he kissed her cheek lastly before he turned away and left.  
Caroline stayed behind touching her ticklish lips just before she shook her head beaming and dropped back on her bed, she pulled the sheet closer to her nose, it smelled like him and she moaned happy that she had that left of him.

* * *

The guy wearing a vest and a flat hat was leading him to another floor in the big manor and while following him Klaus took notice of the ring the vampire was wearing, when they finally arrived to the end of the hallway they were greeted by a handsome bulky guy inside of a big room.

"Niklaus Mikaelson, my sire finally pays me a visit in New Orleans."

Klaus smiled happy to see his former protégé. "Marcellus…"

They hugged each other happy with the encounter, to the rest of the world they were known as Klaus and Marcel but between them there were no such formalities, they were like father and son.

"Did you enjoy the parade I prepared for you?" Marcel joked with a big laughter.

Klaus' smile would have lit the entire city and surroundings, he shrugged barely containing a silly joyful grin. "It was an unforgettable festivity."

Marcel was stunned. "You just arrived, how on Earth did you already get acquainted with the locals?"

Klaus chuckled because of Marcel's accurate guess. "I was blindsided by a feisty blonde."

There was a squint from Marcel who was confused but he knew that was just about the only information Klaus would disclose, he could be a lot of iffy things but Klaus was not one to kiss and tell. "Aside from feisty blondes…" Marcel's smile faded a bit as the serious topic was about to be dropped. "… there was something you wanted from me."

Klaus nodded. "I offended a few gypsies by killing one of their leaders and now they used my blood to trigger my werewolf side every full moon." he tilted his head to the side deeply upset. "I'm not happy about it."

Marcel nodded once. "I know of someone who can help you."

"The same witch that provided the daylight rings for your crew?"

Marcel's features softened up to this sort of proud look. "There is someone very important to me in this community… she's been under my wing for a long time now and she became to me what I was once to you."

Klaus knew he was talking about a parental relationship so that meant the witch had to be not only a true fighter but also very powerful if she meant that much to Marcel.  
There was a pair of high heels echoing down the hallway and Klaus knew he was about to be introduced to the one who would help him.

"I can barely wait to meet your protégé." Klaus turned to the door.

"She's off–limits Klaus, so keep your Original charm all to yourself." Marcel warned him sternly.

Klaus had the perfect comeback at the tip of his tongue but it vanished as soon as the girl came into sight.

"Klaus…" Marcel smiled at the blonde wearing a tiny blue skirt and a white top. "This is Caroline Forbes, she's part of one of the most powerful covens in New Orleans and my family."

Caroline and Klaus stared at each other flabbergasted.

_What even…_

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Bailando -  _Enrique Iglesias feat. Descemer Bueno & Gente de Zona_

Come get it bae –  _Pharrell Williams_

What the water gave me -  _Florence + The Machine_


	2. Coven

"I can barely wait to meet your protégé." Klaus turned to the door.

"She's off–limits Klaus, so keep your Original charm all to yourself." Marcel warned him sternly.

Klaus had the perfect comeback at the tip of his tongue but it vanished as soon as the girl came into sight.

"Klaus…" Marcel smiled at the blonde wearing a tiny blue skirt and a white top. "This is Caroline Forbes, she's part of one of the most powerful covens in New Orleans and my family. And this is Niklaus Mikaelson, my sire and maker." Marcel then turned to Klaus proud to introduce him.

 _Nik... Klaus_. The words repeated in her mind, he was the Original that Marcel had been gushing about for weeks now.  
The ever charismatic and seductive Mikaelson, who killed with a smile and no clemency.

Marcel frowned a bit, they were just ogling each other without further reaction.

"It's a pleasure to meet you sweetheart." Klaus took initiative and held out his hand for her.

Not being one to think slow, Caroline smiled and took his hand formally. "I've heard things about you."

The corner of his mouth twisted slightly into a smirk. "On no account I am one to disappoint my reputation."

She tried to hide her jittery with a small laughter. "I really care for first impressions and the things I've heard are shady because Marcel was drunk most of the time."

"It's my mission to make justice to my name now." he slightly winked at her.

"Guess he was spot on about the big ego." she responded with a scoff.

"Easy on the banter Caroline..." Marcel begged her with a theatrical widening of his eyes. "If you tell him about that time I cried because I missed him..." Marcel whispered next to her ear. "He is never going to leave New Orleans again."

Caroline's soft laughter was done while taking her eyes back to Klaus meanwhile Marcel loudly laughed and stepped into the hallway to take a call.  
Klaus' smirk grew of intensity as they were left alone and he sealed their secret with a strong shake of her hand, before he released her hand Klaus made sure to rub his thumb slightly over her skin, kindly reminding her where his fingers had been merely a few hours ago.

Caroline pressed her teeth together reacting to the friction but quickly retrieved her hand so that their physical contact was broken.

"Marcel tells me that the two of you are close?" Klaus inquired leaving his eyes only on her.

"Enough to consider helping him when he mentioned that this really ancient vampire needed my help." Caroline strongly controlled the direction of their conversation.

Undeniably it made Klaus smile without the mischievous input, much like during their first encounter the blonde was all action and very little conversation.  
His vast knowledge of the human behavior allowed him instantly to know a few things about Caroline, the clear-cut attitude was a careful protection and the unwavering confidence came from being a witch.

"I killed the leader of a travelling clan during an altercation and someone from that lot cursed me…" Klaus smugly parted his arms. "I am a unique kind of monster, they call me hybrid and that allows me to control my werewolf side as I wish…" he stopped when Caroline lifted her hand.

"Let me guess." she crossed her arms petulantly. "You killed a gypsy."

Klaus glanced over to Marcel wondering how much she eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Let her finish." Marcel said amused from the hallway.

"Only a gypsy would be powerful enough to mess with your wolf nature and if they did so, it's because you did something very wrong."

"I had to endure a complete werewolf transformation during the last full moon and I will not have that again." It was his turn to stoically cross his arms. "Every minute counts love and I'm not wasting another valuable second until you guarantee that the spell is reversible and that you will get to it as soon as we end this exchange of information. Some sort of display that you are indeed capable of doing it would be highly welcomed as well."

Caroline tilted her head with a big smile. "I'm not doing it."

His brain strangely took time to fully accept what she was saying, he was not used to hear a clear  _no_. "It can't be a spell that unattainable." he released harshly.

"I don't know and I don't care." she simply turned her back on him.

The magnificent view of her fine ass inside of the skimpy skirt did not appeased him at all and he growled upset that she was walking away with bouncy carefree curls that seemed to defy him with every step she took.  
Klaus flashed set on taking the girl's arm and turning her around to him, he would demand attention and some respect while he was at it but Marcel was returning to the room and stopped him with a hand on a firm chest.

"If she said no, there's no way around it." he determinedly said.

Klaus lowered his eyes towards Marcel's brave hand. " _If_ she is capable, she is going to help me."

Marcel pressed his lips before speaking. "Caroline doesn't work that way… I should have warned you that it takes a certain way to ask for her help, usually saying please makes her happy."

Klaus raised his head and looked at Marcel directly in his eyes. "I am over 1000 years and able to destroy an entire city within the blink of an eye without shedding a drop of my blood and you expect me to say  _please_ to a petulant baby witch whose powers I have yet to authenticate?"

Marcel nodded, not in compliance but knowing he owed Klaus a real explanation. "You need a drink."

Klaus wasn't in the best of moods but he needed to calm down, if he left now he would chase after Caroline and things would be ugly in opposition of how wonderful their night had been.  
He followed Marcel into a room that was situated in a more private area of the big mansion, he silently waited for whatever Marcel was gearing up to tell him and he took the drink that his friend offered him eagerly.

Marcel sat on an old leather chair and pointed at the one in front of him, once Klaus accommodated himself he started from the beginning. "Caroline wasn't born in New Orleans, she comes from a small village in Bulgaria, where I found her at age 5 surrounded by dead bodies."

Klaus narrowed his eyes already engrossed by the story.

"From what I learned later, her parents were caught up in an ugly fight over leadership of their clan and things took a dark turn when someone accused them of practicing black magic, they were later executed without mercy in front of Caroline. The man I spoke to at the time lived in another village but he told me that the screams lasted until sunlight. No one knows for sure what happened that night but the only living soul I found when I walked into that village was a blonde little beauty crying in the middle of a carnage."

"Do you believe it was her who did it, that somehow witnessing her parent's death triggered Caroline's magic and that it got out of control?"

Marcel shrugged. "I don't know Klaus but I do know one thing, you do not want to be around Caroline when she's having a bad day." he smiled next. "And you don't want to offend her origins by calling her a gypsy."

Klaus scolded Marcel before having a harsh sip from his drink. "Why do I have the niggling feeling that you sabotaged this meeting from the start?"

Marcel dropped his head back with a loud roaring laughter, when he calmed down he faced Klaus with a strange expression. "I might just want to keep Caroline all to myself."

As an answer Klaus half-smiled at him.

* * *

Matt looked up from the counter he just finished cleaning and smiled at the girl walking in. "You look like someone in need of some Tequila."

Caroline sat on a high stool with a huff. "I need something stronger." she slammed her hands on the counter. "I demand the good stuff bartender!"

Matt was already placing a shot glass in front of her before he started laughing. "What's clouding your perfect rainbow Care?"

"Ugh!" she slapped her forehead hard with her palm. "I make the worst decisions when I'm horny."

A tall brunette with deep dark curls sat next to her. "That's just like me." she said with a luscious tone. "But… the other way around." she grinned while stealing Caroline's drink.

"How was your Fat Tuesday night Kat?" Caroline refrained from gushing about hers.

"I'll tell you all about it after I find out why Bon looks like someone who caught a little more than beads and throws last night…" Katherine grimaced when she spotted Bonnie coming inside the Pub with big sunglasses and dragged feet.

Bonnie slumped next to Caroline's stool and looked at her friends behind dark shades. "I'm dying."

It was in unison the laugh that erupted from everyone.

"What happened to you?" Caroline had lost track of the girls during the parade so she was trying to collect information, which was basically a way to keep attention away from her.

"I found Marcel and his crew and we ended up on some balcony over St. Charles Avenue. I think we played beer pong or something…" Bonnie lifted her sunglasses. "I have this very vague image of flashing for beads but Marcel kept covering me with his jacket before anyone saw the color of my bra."

"The big guy is trying to win some points." Katherine snatched one of the good bottles from under the counter.

Bonnie pushed the sunglasses back down. "Marcel is just…"

"Big." Katherine moaned while refilling her glass.

"... some sort of friend that I find attractive after many, many drinks." Bonnie sighed nauseated with the smell of alcohol. "Beer is forever banished from my life by the way."

Matt warmly smiled at her. "I made you this." he left a mug in front of her with dark hot coffee.

"Thanks Matty." she reached out for the coffee hoping it was the right amount of healing material.

"What about you Caroline?" Katherine turned to the blonde with a hawk eye. "What has you so quiet after last night? Before we drifted apart, you were determined to find the hottest guy in New Orleans during the last night of Mardi Gras and make out with him."

Caroline smiled stalling. "I… kissed some stranger but then the float took us in different directions." she moved her shoulders like she was shrugging and deflected to Matt. "How about you?"

Matt crossed his arms distraught. "I made eye contact with a girl and things were looking mighty fine until I saw Vicki across the street with a couple of guys I hate…" he had a deep breath. "I got into a fight with them and she started yelling at me, in the end she just left with them and didn't come home."

The girls all gave him this  _I'm so sorry_ look.

"No one is going to ask about  _my_  night? Really?" Katherine sulked.

"We don't want the details." Bonnie said on her end of the counter.

"Don't take out on me any frustrating sex experiences Bon Bon." she warned.

Bonnie looked at her through the mirror in front of them. "I did what you told me, I tried to let go for one night and not think about Kaleb, I didn't have sex but by the way I'm feeling this morning, it feels horrible being you."

"Did you at least kiss Marcel?" Katherine poked her with a sigh.

Bonnie trapped a bunch of loose curls behind her ear, she did a series of attempts to speak but then she resigned with a single word as she removed her sunglasses. "No."

Katherine rolled her eyes. "He walks around with a giant sign saying  _I want you Bonnie_ , and you my little cute friend keep stalling…" she jumped from her stool with a hectic hand in the air. "I'm not even going to touch the reason you're waiting for someone who left us."

Bonnie's sad eyes drifted to Caroline who smiled at her and mouthed an  _I love you_ that felt good to hear.

Matt who had been busy with a few customers came back to the girls. "My shift is over, I'll just grab my jacket and we can leave."

He knew something was interrupted by the way they were all looking at him but by now Matt developed this uncanny ability of blending in with the girls without actually listening or paying attention unless they mentioned his name.  
He went to the back room checking his phone, there were no calls from his sister but he didn't take it the wrong way because he found her, she was getting ready for her shift and although she looked absolutely wrecked, it was a good sign that she was showing up for work.

"I waited up for you last night." he tried making an easy conversation.

Vicki ignored him entirely and grabbed her apron ready to leave him speaking to himself.

"I just want to know if you are ok." Matt insisted.

She stopped with a slight shake of her head. "You don't have to do this, it's just the two of us in here."

Her innuendo pissed him off and Matt really restrained from shouting. "You're my sister and I was worried about you."

She was tired but that wasn't the reason she wasn't going to answer him and she only stopped again because Matt grabbed her arm.  
Vicki had this strange gaze and he tensed his hand around her arm knowing exactly why, he also knew her need to escape reality was going to be a big topic during the next family fight.

Even her smile came groggy. "It's Mardi Gras weekend Matt, don't go all parent on me."

"Another lame excuse to get high, really Vicki? It's Wednesday already."

She shoved him away upset. "I don't need an excuse, ok Matt? I do it because my life is pathetic." she waved the apron in her hand. "I clean tables wearing this while guys try to grope me all shift and don't play the virtuous brother card on me because you care more about those three out there than you care about me."

"That's not true Vic…" Matt hated when she brought up his link to the girls like a weapon that she cruelly used against him.

"You spend all your free time with them and even if you don't, all it takes is a call and you run out of the house to meet them." Vicki began to yell at him.

Of course that she was bringing up Christmas again. "Kaleb went missing and we had to look for him."

"He got his brain back and finally decided to walk away from your weird cult." she yelled again.

This time it reached outside and their boss opened the door to check on them. "Is everything ok in here?"

"Yeah…" Vicki didn't glance back as she finally left the room. "It's just another random day in the life of the lame Donovan family."

With a rage fit Matt threw his phone against the wall but before it got destroyed Bonnie stopped it, she held it an inch away from the wall with the power of her mind but her smile was the real powerful vision inside the room.

"You love that phone, you nagged Marcel for months until he bought you one."

Matt broke into a smile and raised his palm claiming the phone back with his magic. "Thanks." he grabbed his phone with a swift move as it came back flying to him.

"You offered me a cup of coffee so let me buy you a piece of King cake."

He threw his arm around her and pulled Bonnie closer to him, his rage came from Vicki's constant spiraling but also because he knew she was right; Matt couldn't explain it but the shorty under his arm was like a sister to him, one that he would always protect and that feeling was not differ from what he felt for the two other girls waiting in the back alley.

Blood was important in a family but the link between a coven was like an invisible force that none of them could resist or simply walk away from.

* * *

"How's the headache?" Caroline asked Bonnie sweetly as she kept on rubbing the back of her neck.

"You have magical hands." Bonnie had the last bite of her cake happy.

"And you have the worst puns Bon." Matt teased her.

She slapped his chest leaving his blue shirt all smeared in purple, green and yellow. "Justice, faith and power." she giggled when he grunted.

"Give me that gold..." Katherine lazily said while entangling her finger around a long curl. "Doesn't Marcel have any spells for us to do? I could use a new pair of these." she stretched her leg and the long boots that ended above her knee.

"Yeah Care..." Matt was still trying to clean his new shirt. "I have rent to pay and Vicki stole my hidden money again."

"He hasn't mentioned anything but everyone's been busy with the holiday so maybe now that things will calm down he might need a favor or two..." Caroline ended her sentence with a shake of her head. "Why do I feel like a dealer or a pimp hooking you all up with Marcel?" she threw her hands in the air.

"Because he pays really well for the favors we do for him and we all have bills to pay and no parents around." Bonnie was always the voice of reason, perhaps the biggest link gluing all them together was the fact that all of them were orphans.

"Heads up… Salem wannabes on the way." Katherine whispered with disdain.

The four girls approaching them were wearing a uniform consisting of black skirts, black shoes and black socks, the only color was the white shirt but they had a thin tie that was black as well and that determined the visuals they wore every single day.  
Much to the trio's despair because they loved their fashion too much and couldn't stand a group that had total lack of it.

"Well, well… if it isn't the nomads hanging out in the park." Monique said with a scorn.

Caroline smiled at the  _leader._ "We were just waiting for your wonderful passive-aggressive personality to show up."

"We came to play a little Frisbee before heading down to the Bayou, it's going to be really crowded tonight."

Another girl from her coven stepped in to end the sentence. "Some of us were invited by April and her coven." she waved making sure they all saw the symbol on her hand as they all waltzed away.

"An ink symbol?" Matt was actually annoyed. "The party that Caroline organized last summer had a magical symbol that could only be seen by witches, now  _that_  was cool." he didn't care much for stuff like this but Monique and the others really irked him.

"I'll just have to outdo myself for the next party..." Caroline started conjuring a motive to throw a big party.

"I thought we were the cool kids." Bonnie said stomping her military boots on the ground. "How come we didn't get invited to the super secret witch party?"

"The Faye are behind this idiotic nature party." Katherine made this visceral sound, the only coven she hated with all of her heart besides the one that just addressed them was the one led by virginal April Young and the one she commonly called the fairies.

"What are they going to do? Dance around fire naked and pray for men?" Caroline shared Katherine's hatred for the Faye, they were a bunch of judgmental witches that shamed others for their life choices.

"Well, good luck with that." Katherine huffed but she wasn't lingering on that, she had pressing news to share and she took them from the back pocket of her really tight Jeans. "Even though everyone decided to be a useless friend today and ignore my urge to share my events from last night..." she tossed her long hair behind her shoulder with flair. "I really need to tell you all about this." she unfolded a piece of paper and spread it over the wooden picnic table.

"This looks like a page from a diary." Caroline inched closer to the paper.

"It's from Kaleb's diary." she tried to be soft and smooth but they all shot their heads towards her. "I broke into his house last night."

"You are… crazy." Matt's statement was loaded in austerity.

"We are missing a witch from this coven, someone who simply disappeared into thin air on Christmas day and we can all pretend that he's just taking some time off and coming back soon but it's been months now and I don't know about the rest of you but I need to know what happened."

Caroline was the first to agree with her. "We all do Kat but trespassing is a little on the edgy side."

"His legal guardian is a drunken sleazy man who sleeps all day and drinks all night, we tried going to Kaleb's room before but he always closed the front door on our faces, last night I saw him out on the street enjoying the free drinks and I took the chance."

"Not even Marcel's men were able to find Kaleb when he went missing." Bonnie said sad. "And I left him so many messages that he never returned, no one has more interest in finding out what happened Kat than me but since Saturday that you've encouraged me to move on and now you bring this up."

"I'm doing this for you as well." she used a tone it wasn't too common in her but she quickly left the endearing side behind when she insisted. "Your sadness is giving me wrinkles."

Bonnie rolled her eyes.

"He doesn't want to be found, we can all agree on that but I found something we didn't know." Katherine touched the lines she wanted Caroline to read.

" _… I found it, I know that I should tell the others but I'm scared of what that will do to our coven. We will never be the same after this, they say that power destroys everything and what I fear the most in this world is to lose my family…"_ Caroline read the passage affected.

"Does he say what this  _it_ thing is?" Bonnie was confused.

"Aside from the endless wet dreams that he had with you and that he described artistically… there's nothing else on his diary that we can use." Katherine informed with a deep sigh.

Caroline's phone started buzzing and she checked on it with a frown. "It's Marcel… I have to go." she was kind of wavering about it, there was a good chance he would be accompanied by the man she spent all afternoon trying not to think about.

"Are we doing anything tonight?" Katherine asked cheerful.

"I need to talk to Vicki." Matt said somberly.

"And I need to sleep." Bonnie's hangover was still present.

Katherine looked at Caroline hopeful.

"I had a long tiring night…" she tried dodging the heat by standing up. "And Marcel probably has something planned so…" she shrugged.

"So the boring witches are having a party while we all go home and sleep." Katherine complained.

"Try not to break the law tonight." Caroline asked her nicely before leaving.

"Crazy…" Matt repeated while shaking his head at Katherine.

* * *

By the loud cheers and uproar Caroline guessed that Marcel was singing and she walked inside the Pub just as he was finishing his performance.  
He stepped down from the stage to soak in all of the appreciation he got mostly from the occasional tourist that found him irresistible, he motioned his hand in the air when he spotted Caroline, asking her what she thought of the act and she wrinkled her nose a little in response.

"Not my best?" he asked as he came closer to her.

Caroline accepted a drink from one of his vampires and staying true to herself she was brutally honest with him. "That song was just for the easily impressed tourists."

He hung his head defeated while his crew laughed. "Why do you always beat me down like that? I was a singer once." he suddenly lifted his head offended.

"Did you compel people to like you?" she asked teasingly.

Marcel tried to stay immune to the vampires around him betting on Caroline to win this round. "I had to compel them to stay away."

There was a loud  _Oh_ sound granting him the lead but Caroline tossed her head back and had her shot in one take, then she handed him the empty glass. "You could have just sung to them, that would do the trick."

The shift of the loud crowd to Caroline's side gave her a clear swift win and Marcel accepted defeat as his vampires cheered for Caroline, she laughed enjoying his childlike pout.

"You used to beg me to sing when you were little." he reminded her as they headed for the bar.

"I also loved my teddy bear."

"The one you still cuddle during stormy nights?"

It would have been a striking winning blow but it came only when they were alone and Caroline bumped his shoulder with hers, silently asking him to shut up.

He rested his arms on the counter with a smile and taking advantage of the good mood he started a talk that would soon turn serious. "My sire tells me that you refuse to help him."

The tiniest shake of her head hinted to her answer. "You always said that the choice to help you and your friends would always be mine."

"And it is." Marcel was emphatic but entwined his fingers prolonging his reply. "I also told Klaus that I had the right person to help him, even before I knew what was wrong with him."

"And where is this docile lamb with no voice or will?"

He glanced at her only once. "At least consider it."

Out of respect she kept quiet about her utter resolution and started twirling her coven's ring around her index.

"It was a slow Ash Wednesday, I haven't seen anyone today." Marcel struggled to sound casual.

"Even Matt can be smoother than that Marcel." Caroline giggled joyful.

He straightened up. "How is Bonnie?"

His direct approach amused her even more. "She's trying to forget that her boyfriend disappeared months ago and trying to warm up to your charming advances but I don't think she's ready to move on just yet."

"I was asking about the aftermath of all the drinking she did last night." he dropped just as he left her to join his vampires instead.

Caroline turned to spew another flawless remark but her blue eyes caught a movement by the front door, someone was leaving the Pub and she recognized the leather jacket, it was the same he was wearing this morning and Caroline found him leaning against a car with crossed arms when she came outside.

"Your relationship with Marcel is fascinating." Klaus smiled. "I took him in as well when he was just a little boy rebelling against a tyrant father."

"He told me." she kept her answer to the minimal but her eyes were attentively checking his clothes, the colors were different but the style was the same, flawless.

"He also told me about your Romani birth so I owe you an apology for the crass way I referred to your kind this morning."

"Marcel talks too much." she simply said again.

As she started walking away Klaus smiled delighted and shot right behind her. "Is there a specific reason you so aggressively refuse to undo this spell for me?"

"I don't want to do it."

He cut her way by showing up in front of her. "I'm going to need a little more than that love." his lack of patience was visible.

Caroline wanted to go around him but at the same time she wanted to stand there in front of him and forget about the meeting at Marcel's house and just go back to the moment they said goodbye at her house. "Did you know who I was last night?" she confronted him.

"I did not sweetheart." his voice was truly showing how genuine he was. "Marcel spoke of someone who could assist me but he failed to describe the stunning blonde whose taste I can still feel in my mouth."

Caroline gasped flustered and immediately shortened the space between them. "Don't say that out loud, this needs to be kept a secret."

She was so close to him that Klaus licked his lips aroused by her scent and the sprawling images of her trembling naked under him. "Then grant me a few minutes, if I can't change your mind then I will leave you alone and search for another witch." he refocused with a charismatic smile.

She pondered for a minute, then she nodded positively.

* * *

"Welcome to my home sweetheart, please excuse the minor hassle but I'm remodeling the manor for the time being."

There was a small army of workers busy with what seemed to her as changing everything but the walls. "Are you that confident that I will say yes?"

He smirked ever so sure of himself. "We will be more comfortable in the privacy of the library." he waited for her to accompany him.

Caroline left the lobby closely following him down a long hallway and into the only room that apparently hadn't been touched.  
The impressive library was stacked with books that she could count from the floor to the ceiling but instead of the usual dark and somber look the library had wide windows that allowed natural light inside.

"Does the house belong to you?" Caroline searched for his face, she could pretend that she wanted to be all professional about this but truthfully she just liked his face a lot.

"It belongs to my older brother Elijah."

Instinctively Caroline glanced around the library like she was waiting for someone.

"Our time span of existence leaves us weary of each other so he's currently enjoying the dullness of our hometown." he explained.

"How's the weather in Pennsylvania?" she bluntly toyed with him.

"It's always dry in Virginia… unlike the ever sweltering Big Easy."

Caroline started pacing around the library in her high heels, being alone in a room with him again was starting to leave her nervous. "How many siblings do you have?"

"I have two left." Klaus' voice dropped. "It's a cruel reminder that I am the only one truly invincible in my family."

Caroline wanted to stop herself from getting attached but she was curious. "How did you end up cursed by the Romani? They wouldn't mess with someone as powerful as you lightly."

He really enjoyed her astuteness and sat on the edge of his desk admiring the tall girl randomly touching the books. "They killed my baby brother Kol and I exterminated their village entirely."

"You obviously missed someone." she drifted a small teasing smile his way.

"I underestimated the notion of family that wanderers have." he could tell her smile was growing although he only caught a fraction of her red lips twisting, she kept her back on him before she spoke again.

"On my first day of school, I didn't know anyone and I was so nervous that I sat in the hallway unable to go inside the classroom. Everyone ignored the new girl and I spent all morning there watching the other kids going in and out of class, then by lunch time a couple of girls came up to me with a sandwich and an apple. They sat with me and we spent the rest of the day talking, Katherine and Bonnie are part of my coven and they have been my best friends and family since that day." Her eyes sparkled when she looked at Klaus. "Then there's Matt who defended us when the other kids found out that we were different and became part of the coven because he was different too. We all have different notions of family." she ended with easiness.

"I see that a coven resembles a wolf pack, the union there is as sacred as one of a blood family or one born after a close bonding process like it so often happens with wolves." Klaus couldn't keep his eyes away from her, the fascination was extending to all the nuances she was exposing to him. "The coven is your family." Klaus concluded that Caroline and Marcel had very different views of their consanguinity.

Caroline took a book from the shelf merely to keep her hands busy. "How much did Marcel tell you about me?"

"Enough to have me intrigued, so much that I…" he stopped to build the moment, there was a knock on the door and then a man came inside holding a small envelope for him. "… had a few resources working relentlessly today." he carried on happy with what he found inside the envelope.

As the unknown man left Caroline froze because Klaus came to her with a picture in his hand. "What's that?" her mouth was dry and she licked her glossy lips wary.

"I assume Marcellus doesn't speak much about the day he found you."

"He says that it's not good to stir up the past."

"But you don't believe that, do you love?" Klaus silently moaned while reaching out to gently brush her cheek with the back of his hand. "You can't let it go just like that because you are a free spirit…" he brought his gentle touch near her lips and tickled the corner of her mouth lusting to do it with his tongue instead. "Simply untamed to the core." he described her perfectly.

Caroline's breath was as hoarse as his husky voice and for the first time all day, she wasn't hostile towards him; she was the girl from the previous night, the one who demanded to be loved with passion and in her own terms. "I can't remember what happened that day or anything before I arrived to New Orleans with Marcel." she gazed into his eyes hoping to find an answer in all of that blazing blue.

Klaus handed her a worn-out picture, at first she was consumed by disappointment because of the large number of people in the frame but then among all the huge assemble someone stood out to her.  
Sitting in one of the wagons was a beautiful blonde with long hair holding a baby girl with an adorable smile, standing on the ground and next to the horses was a tall man with a big smile and Caroline felt her heart wrap in sorrow and anxiety.

She knew those faces, they often hunted her dreams and strange flashes that she suspected to be repressed memories of her mother and father.  
Or what she feared the most, compulsion.

"If you help me end this curse of mine, I will not rest until I unravel what went down the day your clan was killed and why you were the only survivor of a bloodbath." he spoke in this alluring low voice that made her look up.

"This has to be kept between us, my coven can't know about it and Marcel can't even suspect that we are doing this." she whispered.

"I can already tell that scandalous secrets will be our thing."

She hadn't even noticed his move, somehow both of his hands were now warming the sides of her neck and with a single shift of her body Caroline inched closer to him, candidly he was not excepting it but he loved how his body reacted to her proximity.

"I know that you are this really old guy Nik but a one-night stand means that it was one night only." Caroline pressed the book she was holding against his chest and for the second time today walked away with bouncy curls and a brazen attitude.

This time he was enthralled and smiled broadly.

The man from before came back to the room. "Do you have orders for the rest of the night Klaus?"

"Yes Josh." Klaus handed the book to his minion. "Have that gift-wrapped and delivered at Caroline Forbes' address."

Josh was now holding the first copy of  _ **Anna**   **Karenina**_.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

I followed fires – Mathew & the Atlas

Just because –  _Jane's Addiction_

The days -  _Avicii_

How do you like me now -  _The Heavy_

Beggin for thread – BANKS


	3. Wicked hearts

Slamming the front door shut and then some lively conversation.  
Those were the noises that woke her up and Caroline hid her face in the pillow hating it, people just had a problem with letting her sleep undisturbed in the morning.

There was music now so it became obvious that they weren't going anywhere, with a big sulking grunt Caroline pushed the sheet away and left the bed with one eye closed and the other open.  
She headed for the kitchen picking up her hair in a careless ponytail.

"Good morning Care." Bonnie was the first to greet her with a smile.

She constricted her response to a simple wave and slouched on a chair looking at Katherine with her head shoved inside of the fridge.

"You are out of milk." Katherine closed the fridge upset.

"I have it covered." Matt said coming in from the kitchen door with a bottle of milk.

Bonnie was already placing the bowls for cereal and spoons for everyone and Caroline sleepily smiled at Matt who sat next to her after taking his jacket off.

"I got you a beignet." he hadn't forgotten her.

Caroline reached for it with a grin, they were the best part of any breakfast and she indulged in it accompanied by the best coffee in New Orleans, Bonnie's. "No one prepares breakfast like you Bon." she licked her lips covered in sugar.

Bonnie handed the bottle of milk to Matt with a smile, it was all made with love.

"Were you dodging the cops last night?" Matt asked Katherine just before he dived into a huge bowl of crunchy cereal.

She lazily smiled. "Not at all, I hooked up with one of Marcel's men." When Bonnie dubiously looked at her she ran a finger across the skin that her raunchy top was showing. "Vampires are extremely good lovers."

Caroline kept her eyes on the coffee in front of her.

"I kissed a girl from his crew once…" Matt munched on his cereal reminiscent. "That was awesome."

"Wasn't that the one who tried to drain you in the parking lot of Tulane?" Katherine asked him with a pointy finger that stood out from the mug she was holding.

"Yeah…" Matt had another mouthful of cereal. "Thanks for reminding me of that."

"Speaking of Tulane." Caroline woke to the conversation before somehow the topic shifted towards her. "Classes start today."

"I'm taking the rest of the week off." Katherine quickly said. "It's my own Mardi Gras holiday break."

"I have to work today, I couldn't get anyone to do my shift." Matt hated college anyway.

Caroline looked at the only reliable source in the group.

"I've already been on Campus today, I missed my room and my books." Bonnie had a small look around the table and answered the tamed smiles with a huff. "Somebody call the boring police, it's Bonnie Bennett, the girl who lives at Campus and works in the library."

"You're so precious…" Katherine cutely said while padding Bonnie's wild natural curls.

Bonnie knew that was somewhere between an insult and a compliment but she was used to Katherine's ways. "I have a few things to do so I will meet you later in the university." she spoke to Caroline while grabbing her bag.

Caroline and the others waved at her as she left to start her day, they didn't ask about her chores because they knew her ritual well.  
First she bought 3 roses in the usual flower shop, then she headed for the cemetery where she left one rose at her parents tombstone and two at her Gram's.

It was there that she lingered, picking up the old flowers while telling Sheila about her friends and how there were no news of Kaleb yet.  
During the carefree speech Bonnie sensed someone else in the cemetery and swiftly she stood up searching for the presence, although she couldn't see anyone, she knew she wasn't alone.

She avoided the usual  _Hello_ shouted across the field of graves but she tried feeling the energy around her in case the presence was supernatural, it wasn't a clear no but it started fading which meant that whoever it was, was leaving the cemetery.  
She also left shortly after that and took a few known shortcuts to Maple Street; the second part of her morning ritual made her chuckle, Marcel was  _casually_ having a drink in one of the tables outside the Pub where Matt worked.

"Back to Criminal Justice today?" he asked her across the street.

Bonnie smiled as she made way to him. "I might need a little help with my Criminology assignment."

"You need to search no further." Marcel laughed in his natural loud way.

Bonnie drifted curious to his left side, she didn't know the other man sitting at the table with him.

"Klaus Mikaelson." he introduced himself with a charming smile.

Bonnie half-closed her eyes. "You are Marcel's sire, right?"

"I love how famous I am around here." Klaus delectably had his drink.

"Marcel gushes about you every time he gets drunk but he always described you as the English version of Brad Pitt in  _Interview with the Vampire_." Bonnie tilted her head with a squint.

Klaus looked at Marcel slowly.

"It was… the long blonde hair and…" he pressed his lips steering a look to Bonnie. "Thank you for embarrassing me."

She laughed.

"I'm much prettier than…  _Brad_." Klaus pretended to be offended.

Bonnie loved the fun moment but she had obligations. "I've caused enough damage so I'm going to leave now and try to get some education." she sweetly smiled at Marcel before leaving.

He followed the gentle swing of her flowing floral skirt as she walked away, the white sweater falling down her shoulder and then what always caught his attention, her beautiful legs and the cute ankle military boots that were a trademark to Bonnie's look.

"You fancy her." Klaus was almost dazed.

Marcel cleared his throat and immediately looked away from the girl and to the older vampire. "She's part of Caroline's coven."

Klaus had his drink with a cutting smile.

"She's very pretty." Marcel mumbled into a drink he had in one take.

"Yes, they seem to pop everywhere I turn in this city." Klaus was still amused.

"But she's more than just a pretty human, they all are."

Klaus widened his eyes and picked up the bottle. "This looms as something long to tell."

Marcel dragged his glass now refilled closer to him. "Bonnie's parents died when she was still a baby so she was raised by her grandmother Sheila Bennett. Now that was another very attractive Bennett and she was also part of a powerful coven…"

"Naturally." Klaus interrupted his friend rudely.

"And she was killed during a harvest that went very wrong."

"Ah!" Klaus exclaimed. "New Orleans and its vast glossary of occult terms."

Marcel didn't mind the explanation, he build his empire right in the heart of mystical NOLA and he knew everything that happened whether it was related to witchcraft or not. "A Coven is a fascination affair, it's nothing but power converged together by a group of people but the real kick is that it takes a little more than just claiming to be part of a coven. A link can be forged but when tested it can be broken."

"I know what a harvest is, Marcel." Klaus ended his glee elated, as if he was one to visit without knowing the waters he was sailing. "Every blue moon the supernatural energy in the city rises up to uncharted highs and all covens are summoned before the Elder Witches of New Orleans where they must prove their bond as a true coven."

Marcel raised his glass for a toast validating Klaus' knowledge. "During one night every coven in the city is tested and the ability to perform magic as individuals is taken away from them, they are linked and forced to stay that way for one night. If their bond is strong enough then by dawn their individual powers will be restored, if not…" Marcel had his drink.

"So what happened to Sheila Bennett?" Klaus inquired.

"Magic isn't the only thing that they have to share that night…" Marcel wanted a refill from his drink so he left the glass on the table while resting his arms there. "They also have to share every single thought they ever had."

"I predict a dramatic unrequited love story in the midst." Klaus did the honors with the bottle.

Marcel nodded. "Sheila was the only woman in her coven and she was in love with someone outside the coven, it wouldn't be a problem if Kai, one of the warlocks in her coven wasn't obsessed with her. When harvest night ended, they found Sheila's body floating in the river and Kai was never seen again."

"It's impossible not to love New Orleans." Klaus mused.

"Either way, Bonnie has been alone most of her life and she's a fighter that one but there's also this strange vulnerability about her…" Marcel wanted to explain what he saw in Bonnie but she was ultimately too complex to narrow down into words.

"So you fancy her?" Klaus repeated his first question with a laugh.

Marcel grumbled a couple of noises that turned out to be obscenities in another language.

"Good to see that your Chinese is still unfussy." Klaus joked departing from the easy lazy talk.

"I'm hosting a party for you tonight." Marcel informed his friend.

"I might be occupied but I appreciate the gesture." Klaus was planning on convincing Caroline to start working on his problem today, time was unfortunately an issue for him as the countdown to full moon hovered like a bad hex.

Marcel leaned back on his chair. "When I throw a party I expect my guests to show up, it's a rule."

"Since when rules became something to take into account?"

"I own the French Quarter Klaus, my vampires feed without a single yell erupting from the shocked humans because I taught them to look the other way, I also keep the witches on a tight chain. I know that Caroline refused to help you but I'm working on a second option, she's just not as willing to help as Caroline usually is so I will need a little time..." he widened his smile. "While we wait, we party."

Now Klaus was curious about Marcel's backup plan. "The Governor was a splendid greedy man who invited my family to stay in his house in exchange for gold, I always did enjoy the parties we lavishly gave every night. I'm curious to see if you can outdo us."

Marcel ended the drinking spree by turning his glass upside down on the table. "It's my house now Klaus and no one kills without my permission."

Klaus pursed his lips with a narrow of his eyes. "Don't be bitter Marcellus, it was only a small sting." he smirked lastly before strutting away.

He kept the smile as he walked down the street but he pulled the dimples when he blocked the way of a girl slowly walking and terribly entertained with a book. "The Russian is not a problem?" he was so baffled that she was actually reading the book without translation.

Caroline lifted her eyes from the enthralling novel. "I know at least 10 different languages."

"I taught Marcel 11." Klaus gave her an adorable side look. "I would demand him an explanation."

Caroline closed the book with one swift move and dropped it into her bag. "I didn't want to learn Old Norse, I found it boring."

Klaus gushed out an appalled gasp. "Are you experienced in the arts of torture as well?"

She easily had this cute small laugh because his expression was priceless. "There's so much about me to know and so little time." she went around him decided.

"That's quite the statement but I consider myself outspoken as well therefore I must point out that you don't really know much about yourself either." he lowered his eyes to appreciate the outfit she had today, while he saw a cute pink top over black short leather shorts, inwardly he imagined her naked and his smirk was as naughty as his thoughts.

There was a reel on Caroline's answer because all the agitation happening in the big house up the road was robbing all of her attention.

"Someone is missing." Klaus said next to her.

Caroline startled a bit with the sudden move. "That's the Fairy house…" she clasped her lips itching to know what happened.

A police car arrived and Davina came out of it visibly crumbled by tears and fatigue, a woman with red hair waited for her at the gate and then took her inside trying to comfort her.

"I'm waiting for Tinkerbelle." Klaus notified Caroline.

Caroline smiled with the joke. "I just like calling them that but there was a party last night in the Bayou and they were the ones hosting it."

"It could be speculation but I don't believe it ended well."

"I'm with you on that..." Caroline's tone changed instantly when two women arrived at the house.

"Who am I looking at?" Klaus was looking ahead but he was surprised when Caroline's hand suddenly began to stroke his neck and her body leaned in against his like they were having an easy affectionate moment.

"The one with the big tattoo is Sophie and the other one is her sister Jane-Anne." her voice was coldly neutral unlike her hand that dissimulated her trick to stay invisible to the sisters. "They are the Elder Witches, harbors of all the great spirits and ancestral magic that exists in New Orleans."

There was an evil twinkle in Klaus' eyes and swiftly he laced an arm around her waist hauling her _really_  close to him. "For precision."

Instead of showing irritation Caroline started playing with the beads on his necklace. "What are they saying?"

"That we form a magnificent couple." he smirked.

Caroline lifted her eyes to him with a big scowl. "Are they talking about last night?"

"Someone called Monique disappeared from a party alongside with her coven."

Caroline stopped her hand movements on his neck.

"They've been looking for them unsuccessfully." Klaus reported what his outstanding hearing allowed him, as he did so, he could see Caroline's mind searching for answers but sadly she was about to stop his own trailing process.

"Stop feeling my ass Nik." she gave him a perky ultimatum.

"Perhaps it would be wise to address me as the rest of the world knows me, it would be somewhat hard to explain Marcel the usage of Nik instead of Klaus."

"Sure." she shot all too quickly and putting space between them.

The hastiness made him doubt if there were some feelings there that were a tad damaged by his observation. "I wouldn't have by any chance just created a small rift between us…"

"I'm late for school Klaus." she left with a smile that was as ambiguous as they came.

And for some reason it felt strange to Klaus that she would so.

* * *

The sudden light on the screen of her phone deviated Bonnie's attention from the really interesting lecture and she reluctantly read the message from Caroline.  
Bonnie frowned when she found out that Monique was missing but on that second she only expected the girls to be lost in the Bayou, the image of Monique freaking out and yelling for help while dodging all the wild life in the swamp made her smile and she locked her phone entertained with it.

Trying to get back to her scholar activities Bonnie put away the phone but alas the big lecture was over and everyone started talking and standing up.  
Bonnie hadn't made that many notes but she still tried to see how much usage the lecture had been, she was not expecting to find scribbled nonsense on her pad.

 **** _St. Anne's Church  
_  
On the page there was a location scribbled over and over and Bonnie grimaced deducting that she was having visions again.  
If only she could make anything of them...

The library was her refuge and she went up to the fourth floor expecting some silence and peace, for some time now that the other students respectfully left the big table after the row with the all the books related to occultism reserved for Bonnie and her coven.  
But Katherine and the others weren't here as much as she was and Bonnie dropped her bag on the table dreading the horrible memory, like blood rushing through her veins the small movie replayed naturally in her mind.

She was always here with him.

* * *

_Six months earlier_

Bonnie chewed on her pen trying to translate the last part of the Hebrew passage, she was stuck on a sentence that made absolutely no sense to her and she trapped that pen harder between her teeth wishing that wisdom came with the flavor of plastic invading her mouth.

"Your cuteness is like the hottest thing I've ever seen." A gorgeous boy with beautiful blue eyes and a killer smile sat next to her.

"Being hot is Kat's department." she smiled at him. "I run the  _socially awkward with a strange sense of humor_  department."

"Hey, I dig weird." he threw his hands in the air with a big smile.

Bonnie looked down with a coy blush. "I'm not  _that_ weird."

"You're perfect." he leaned over cupping her chin so he could lift her eyes to him.

"How was game night with Matt?" she barely kept her eyes on his, although they had been dating for almost a year now she still felt nervous around him like the first time they kissed.

"Definitely Sports is not my playground and I spent all night thinking about you."

That really made her smile and Bonnie kissed him happy that he felt the same way she did. "I have something for you…" she took something from her bag, it was a silver chain necklace with a pendant and she proudly placed it around his neck.

He touched the pendant besieged, it had the coven's symbol. "Bonnie…"

"I spoke to the others and they all feel the same way, you are a part of this coven so we're just making it official."

"I've never been a part of anything before." his voice betrayed him, he was moved about the meaning behind the gift.

"You are one of us now Kaleb." her eyes sparkled in a special joy and nothing but love.

* * *

Bonnie held back a sniffle, how could so much change in such a short time?  
She went from having the perfect boyfriend to not hearing from him at all, when she went to Sophie with Caroline, she told them that he hadn't crossed over as a spirit which meant that he wasn't dead but still none of the location spells worked.

Bonnie's only guess was that he was staying away from New Orleans for some very important reason, and he surely would explain in it all in detail when he returned.  
Yes, because in Bonnie's mind there was no doubt that he was coming back one day.

She refused to believe otherwise.  
She was also tired of all the mopping so nothing like fondling over written pages to cheer her up, with that in mind she tried to pick something from her private compilation.

That was the biggest advantage of working in the library, it allowed her to keep some of the books she liked in the part of the library that was never visited.  
She was undecided between two books but almost knocked everything to the ground when Katherine showed up next to her with a hurry that wasn't normal.

"I found something!" she whispered in the same sprinted way that she neared Bonnie.

"Would that be my heart?" Bonnie complained about the scare.

"That's a very good analogy, especially considering that I was talking about Kaleb." Katherine made sure they were alone before she carried on. "I broke into his room again."

Bonnie widened her green eyes worried. "This is getting out of control Katherine."

"I knew I missed something the other night, there is no way that Kaleb wouldn't leave a clue or a hint of what he was up to when he disappeared." Katherine handed Bonnie the proof.

It was a picture of her with Kaleb and Bonnie looked at Katherine hoping this was going somewhere good. "So you went through his pictures…"

"That was inside of his Grimmoire so it obviously meant a lot to him." Katherine turned the picture around so that Bonnie recognized Kaleb's handwriting. "It's an address in Baton Rouge, I already checked."

"And you already have a plan, don't you?"

Only Katherine would have such a crooked smile as a reply.

* * *

Caroline easily went around the cops scavenging the Bayou, they were sticking to the usual routs which meant that they would never find the missing girls and unlike them she knew exactly where to start looking.  
The NOLA police and their dogs were moving away from the river while she was rushing there.

Just after the abandoned cabins there was an old stone bridge that she eyed for a few seconds before crossing, everything in New Orleans was symbolic and paved with invisible lines that very few crossed, the area she was now stepping into was forbidden for a reason.  
No one came here unless they wanted to die at the teeth of the feral creatures that lived in this dark part of the swamp and though she wasn't scared of them, she was respectful enough to stop when the first large wolf showed up curious about the visitor.

Caroline waited without taking another step and in silence, just behind that first grey wolf, another two big ones slowly came out of the dense forest and began to pace around her, sniffing her scent and ready to attack at any instant.  
She remained still until they shied away because a shirtless tall dark-haired young man came from behind the trees, he touched the head of one of the wolves quietly ordering the pack to step down.

"Hey Tyler…" she smiled at him.

He returned the smile but added a small kiss on her cheek. "You look beautiful as always Care."

She rolled her eyes playfully at him. "And you ran out of shirts? I can get you new clothes if you need them."

"It was a lively night, I just shifted back."

Instantly she knew he guessed why she was here. "Do you know what happened to Monique and the others?"

"It wasn't us." he was assertive.

"But did you hear anything?"

"The party was loud but they kept it by the Witch House… I did hear someone running through the woods close to dawn and it sounded like they were being chased but it was far from here."

Caroline nodded thoughtful but at least now she knew that the coven wasn't eaten by Tyler's pack.

"Caroline…" Tyler called out with an ear on the surroundings. "You need to go, there's someone close by…"

She turned away fast and rushed back to where it would be safe to be found, in case Marcel or his men were around.

She hadn't walked that far from bridge when she came face to face with someone. "Klaus." she wasn't exactly expecting  _him_.

"Running with the wolves love?" he couldn't be blunter.

She clutched the long strap of her bag. "Are you getting your kicks by following me around?"

"I'm new in the city and I don't have that much to entertain myself while I wait for a stubborn witch to undo this bothersome curse of mine."

"Take the tour to Lafayette Cemetery, it's a hit with the tourists." she simply walked past him.

"I'd like to focus on the problem at hand first." he went after her easily.

"I need a big natural energy source to draw the power similar to what was used to awake your werewolf gene." she kept on walking.

"I deduce you are referring to the full moon."

"Or hope…" she sighed when he materialized in front of her.

"Maybe we could stick to things that I can actually touch and kill, _feelings_ is not my favorite subject."

Caroline half-smiled. "I wouldn't have guessed it, Klaus."

"I'm not willing to wait four weeks for the full moon." he made clear how impatient he was by austerely eyeing her.

"Then I want a big ass diamond." she delectably smiled at him.

Klaus had this small profound breath. "You meant  _Hope_."

Caroline pressed her hands and made this dreamy sound. "The biggest diamond known to mankind and the best friend of a witch."

"My brother Kol was a big aficionado and he told me once that the diamond has been gone astray for centuries."

"I'll make a list of activities so that you don't get bored for the next four weeks." she provocatively left with a slightly tilted head and a teasing smile.

"I can always get a second witch opinion." he struck back with a smile that she wasn't seeing. "The city is swarming with prevailing witches."

Caroline laughed without facing him. "Matt Donovan is the best White magic warlock you'll ever know, Katherine Pierce is the most potent Black magic sorceress this place has ever seen while Bonnie Bennett is the only alive witch in the world that we know off that can balance Grey magic perfectly." she suggested a few names for him.

"What about you sweetheart?" he was truly inquisitive about her.

Caroline turned but never stopped walking. "Me?" she shrugged with a grin. "I run with the wolves."

Klaus found it hard to decide if he enjoyed the flirt as much as he enjoyed her refreshing personality.

* * *

Katherine stopped the car in front of a massive white house, the driveway and the property around it was from a former plantation and she exchanged a look with Bonnie.

"I'm just waiting to be chased away with a shotgun." Bonnie shrunk her bad feeling into a sentence.

"A little adventure never hurt anyone." Katherine quickly left the seat of her red Corvette.

The two girls went up the steps of the porch with growing frowns as this strident noise of loud music hit them.

"This scares me more than unsettling silence." Bonnie admitted as they reached the front door.

Katherine had to agree with her as she pushed the door that was already cracked open.  
The music was louder as they went inside the house and then things just got weirder as they encountered a girl bouncing down the long staircase.

"Hi." The girl cheerfully addressed them. "Are you here for the party?"

"I feel overdressed for it." Katherine sneered as another girl came down the staircase wearing the same as the one talking to them, nothing but a laced set of black lingerie.

"Oh, he's very easy going about that, you can keep your clothes on if you want, he really likes watching us undress anyway." The girl left them at ease.

"I want to go now." Bonnie whispered next to Katherine who just went up the stairs dragging her by the hand.

They found so many girls wearing obvious expensive lingerie with garters and all that the last step into the room where the noise was loudest was taken warily.

Bonnie was the first to freeze with an invisible punch that hit her right in the stomach, a couple of girls were dancing with each other a few feet away from the sofa.  
And in there, sitting comfortably with a girl giving him a lapdance was Kaleb, with a bottle of Dalmore in one hand while caressing the hot girl on his lap with the other.

"Kaleb?" It was like Katherine was still processing the image and only now naming it. "Why the hell are you having a lingerie orgy?"

Bonnie felt so sick that she had to look away but her eyes landed on some random girl wearing a tiny silk robe, and on her neck was the silver necklace she once gave Kaleb.  
Katherine could do very little to stop Bonnie from storming away heartbroken but she wanted to kill the moron who had the audacity of looking at them like he didn't even know them.

"Give me a minute darling." he asked the girl on his lap to move so he could stand.

"We've been waiting for news all this time and you were just living your Hefner fantasy all along?"

"I was…" he narrowed his eyes like he was thinking about his answer. "… taking a leave of absence."

Katherine inhaled with a growl. "There is a special ring of fire in hell reserved for those who hurt Bonnie Bennett." she hissed furious leaving the sad show behind, he wasn't even worth killing but she still forced him to fly across the room and hit the wall brutally before she crossed the threshold.

* * *

Marcel knew how to throw a party, Klaus gave him that.  
Torches lit the alley all the way to his house, the main outer balcony was filled with people dancing but the scenario repeated itself on the floor by the courtyard fountain filled with Champagne bottles at everyone's reach.

Klaus identified Marcel's men at once but he didn't know all the unfamiliar girls dancing with them, although he was familiar with the slight lethargic gaze they all had.  
He looked for Marcel among the partying crowd and easily spotted him dancing with some pretty blonde but it was extremely unfair for everyone at the party to expect him to find them remotely sexy when Caroline was here.

She was dancing with the boy from her coven and looking enticing with every single move she made, the bandage strapless dress made her curves mesmerizing but her smile outshined everything else.  
Matt twirled her around and she happily crashed against his chest with a bubbly attire that stole a smile from Klaus.

"See anyone that you like?" A guy with a big hairdo asked him.

"I don't require compelled company." Klaus parched the conversation completely.

The vampire wasn't happy and he didn't like either that Klaus left him standing there like that.

"It's a party Diego, you need to smile." Marcel arrived in a good mood.

"I don't like your friend."

"Easy Diego…" Marcel asked him. "You don't want to lose your head tonight."

"And I don't like the way he looks at Caroline." Diego warned Marcel.

At first Marcel found him hilarious but once he was alone he had a better look at the party, he drank his beer happy with the way Caroline was having fun but there was an emerging dent on his easy smile.  
It lasted only a few seconds but he caught an exchange of stares between Klaus who was heading inside the house and Caroline who danced sexily with her back against Matt's chest but undeniably offering the tiny show to someone else.

He grabbed Thierry's shoulder and pulled him away from a girl and into a blind spot in the courtyard.

"Something on your mind?" Thierry laughed but clearly Marcel was not joining him.

"I want you to follow Caroline tomorrow, from dawn till dusk and I want you to call me every hour with a detailed report."

Thierry found the order odd but he never questioned Marcel, with a nod he accepted his new assignment.

* * *

"How did you pull off such a good party in only two hours?" Matt pulled Caroline back up to him after a swift dipping movement.

"I'm so used to these that all I have to do is tell Marcel to buy the drinks and put the music on." she said laughing through the loud music.

"I see that this is the equivalent of a frat party for you." Marcel interrupted the friend's talk but also the dance by asking Matt for Caroline's hand.

Matt sweetly kissed her temple before leaving her with Marcel.

"I've seen some sick things in college, drugging a girl and compelling her isn't that much of a difference." Caroline wasn't as naturally joyful when she took his hand.

Marcel sighed. "They need to feed Caroline and the tourists don't remember anything after the crew sends them away."

She wasn't going to start a fight that she kept losing. "Did you hear about Monique?" she asked instead.

"Yes…" Marcel lifted her arm so that she could spin around and welcomed her back into his carriage with an icy smile. "Davina was telling everyone that she saw a shape shifter when she was looking for her friends."

Caroline kept her eyes on his chest level.

"I think they were smoking something really strong last night because that's impossible, there are none left in this town." Marcel pierced her with an intense look.

Caroline looked up apprehensive and still silent.

"Because I know that you wouldn't dare to lie to me like that." he smiled showing his magnificent white teeth.

She gulped down.

"That would be me in reality." Klaus calmly but strongly said.

Marcel looked at the man nearing them. "What do you mean?"

"I shifted last night in the Bayou so the girl must have seen me." Klaus didn't look at Caroline although he could feel her glancing at him surprised.

"It's all just a bit more conspicuous now." Marcel gritted his teeth a bit but forcefully found a way to smile again. "Just that Klaus… you can't go around shifting like that. There are rules in my city and these rules keep the supernatural city running without a problem, and there are no exceptions." he shifted his eyes to Caroline this time.

"You need a chill-pill Marcel." she scoffed leaving the two men behind.

"Wise words as I've ever heard them." Klaus smirked amused.

"You are a guest in my home Klaus but not a resident and this is my family so stay out of it." Marcel harshly hissed.

"Me… me … me…" Klaus took an imposing step towards Marcel. "And I thought that I liked the over usage of the word  _I._ "

Marcel defied him with a glower.

Klaus smiled defiantly. "You wouldn't have a home and a family if it wasn't for me so feel free to apologize anytime now for the impertinent attitude."

Marcel quietly snarled while the party slowed down to a big silence, the vampires were expectant because they sensed the growing hostility.

"I accept long emotional letters as well." Klaus said inches away from Marcel's face, when Diego tried to step in to defend Marcel's honor, Klaus turned around biting his neck hard. "Rule number one Marcellus..." Klaus moved only his head to look at him. "Don't make rules that can be so easily abolished."

Marcel helped Diego up knowing that Klaus was waiting for him to go beg for blood now and that really pissed him off.

* * *

"What will it be?" the bartender asked as soon as Klaus sat at the bar.

"Your oldest Dalmore." Klaus asked reminiscent.

"Straight, I presume?" The man returned with a beautifully colored Scotch.

"And the bottle as well." Klaus compelled the man.

The alcohol was exceptional and it hit his palate like a work of art exploding inside of his mouth, he was thoroughly enjoying his drink when a set of heels sounded all too familiar to him.

" _Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine._ " Caroline took the stool next to his.

"Now that's an old reference sweetheart." he squinted at her struck that she liked  _Casablanca_.

"Turns out there's a twist and I like old things." she cutely held her chin high and the indistinct connotation behind her statement.

He obviously took it the way he wanted. "I like you too Caroline." he had a sip from his drink. "It's an astonishing accomplishment that you turned out so extraordinary considering how you were raised by Marcel who turned out so insipid and obsessed with his rules."

"He always said that I was high-maintenance."

"Only a fine lady in the makings."

Caroline adorably gave a little spin in her stool. "If you are going to keep dropping the compliments at least buy me a drink."

Klaus motioned the bartender near them. "Anything that the cheeky lady requires."

"What will it be gorgeous?" the bartender asked with a chuckle.

"An empty glass, he's sharing."

Klaus poured scotch into her glass with a flirting look that lowered to the long legs that crossed in front of him. "Are you the distraction or the begging bait to cure Diego?"

Caroline moved her eyebrows together lost. "I left the party with Matt before you did."

"In that case, enjoy your drink." he had his after a big smile.

"Hmm... that's smooth for whiskey." she really liked the scotch.

"It was Kol's favorite drink in the world." Klaus poured beverage for himself as well. "No matter the scenario, even when he was in some remote location, he always had a bottle of Dalmore with him."

"You really miss him." Caroline warmly said.

"I hated the annoying prick." he let out a small sad smile.

Caroline came a little closer to him. "What did you do to Diego?"

"I had the munchies..." he said with dimples.

Caroline burst into laughter, she covered her mouth but her body was shaking with laughter.

"You will not be grieving him?"

Caroline played with her empty glass. "He's one of those who think that no isn't a full sentence." when she spotted how hard Klaus was thinking about it she smiled resting her chin on her hand. "You were my first vampire, I had never been with one before."

He smugly smiled. "That's hybrid, love."

She ran a hand across her leg. "So that's what we were doing? Hot, hybrid sex?"

His tongue gained a life of its own licking the rest of the scotch from his lips. "You have a gift for accurate words."

She flirted openly with him while moving her index along the rim of her glass. "And you have one for listening."

He answered her flirt by leaning in a bit and filling her glass again, his eyes invited her for a dance that she was happy to accept.

"Thank you for not telling Marcel about Tyler…" Caroline kept her voice in a low genuine tone.

"Why is he living in solitude?"

"Tyler was my first love." The recollection was sweet and it made her eyes shine. "It didn't last but we remained really good friends until he triggered his werewolf gene and his obligations with the pack took off around the same time mine with the coven did." she dropped her easiness almost entirely. "The werewolves were the biggest opponents of Marcel and the free life he granted his vampires so a war started between the two factions. The fights were horrible and I was about to lose people on both sides that I really cared for so when Marcel came up with a plan… I said yes."

Klaus held back his drink intrigued.

Caroline's voice lowered just like she was confessing a crime. "The werewolves were cursed to remain in their wolf shape with the exception of that one night when the full moon happens."

"It must be a Romani characteristic." Klaus mumbled ticked off.

She had her drink with an apologetic look.

"How did your friend Tyler turn out immune to the curse?"

"I lured him to a place outside the city and then I trapped him inside of a house with magic until the main spell was completed. When it was all done, he still chose to return and hide in the Bayou looking after his pack."

"I don't feel that special now that I know that you have secrets with someone else as well." Klaus sulked.

She laughed lusciously which was always amazing to see and their smoldering dance carried on, when she pushed the glass on the counter towards him Klaus refilled it and his hand brushed her leg, telling her that he wanted to touch her.

Caroline reached for her glass but wandered two fingers to his hand. "Are you really that scared of getting attached that you don't want me to call you Nik?"

"You are still hiding behind the assumption façade sweetheart and I will not let you discern two sides of me so easily unless you show me something worthy of it."

Caroline grew closer to him. "Are you talking about my magic?"

"I've seen nothing so far praiseworthy or concrete."

Her hand trailed his arm up to his neck that she tickled with soft fingers, she leaned even further on her stool and sneaked a hand under his jacket, although he frowned a bit she smiled upon resting her hand over his heart.  
The strangest fever started erupting from where she was touching, like his blood was being set on a slow burning fire, then without explanation he felt a prickly wave of pain that eased when he exhaled.

When he breathed in the pain expanded to his entire rib cage, the fever became stronger and with a final writher he felt the blood flowing, hastening to reach his heart.  
Klaus closed his hand around the bottle reacting to the twinge, shocked he stared at her as his heart started pounding inside of his chest, it lasted for a few seconds but he truly felt it.

There was blood rushing inside of his chest and feeding his heart with energy that made it beat strongly and alive.  
His breath became hollow and his eyes changed into this deep yellow coloring, Caroline had deep steady breaths but she was floored by the way he looked so regal and beautiful.

She broke the spell weary and slumped against his body the tiniest bit, he made sure she was secure by supporting her with a hand on her back.

"Wow... you're really powerful…" she whispered with a hasty breath, a few more seconds and she would have been drained and unconscious.

"Likewise love." he still felt his chest prickling.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds finding a blazing blue wonderland when she opened them again. "Will you shut up about my abilities now and trust me that I can do this, that I can break your curse when I am ready to do it?"

He didn't answer, he didn't want to form words and expel them out of his mouth, he wanted to occupy his lips with something else and rarely Klaus didn't do what he wanted.  
He crashed her lips for a dominant kiss that was welcomed by her, their tongues blindly met like two lovers missing each other and then their bodies followed the same need.

Caroline melted against his chest, his hand outlined her back until he reached her ass and Caroline's knee nudged him between his legs as she shifted in her seat.

"You should flash me out of here before I start filtering my thoughts…" Caroline's hand peeked inside of his shirt thrilled to feel his body again.

He countered the hand on his waist with a hand that rested on her lap just inches away from the edge of her short dress, itching to touch the arousal he could smell enveloping all of his senses. "I seem to have promised to forget where you live." he moved his hand to stroke her bare skin.

Caroline bit her lip moving her legs an inch apart so that he could caress the inside of her thigh. "You own a bed, don't you?" she moaned when he joined his lips with hers again.

* * *

Caroline dropped her head back overwhelmed with the blissful way he was slowly kissing her neck, moving languorously to her collarbone and then enjoying all the roundness of her breast.  
Her fingers became a knot with his hair reacting intensely to the lips savoring all the area around her nipple before it got hard enough for him to nibble upon.

Klaus was sitting against the headboard while she sat on his lap and his hands were roaming her back meanwhile he was attentive to that precise sensitive area with his mouth, his palms became flat on her lower back to bring her closer to him.  
By doing so Caroline felt him hard and ready against her damp warm core, her body was aching to have him and she decided to move things along because Klaus was definitely enjoying the slowness of everything.

The slight shift of her body against his, the way her hips made her sway so that she stroked his erection without taking him in made him finally leave her breast so that he could kiss her instead.  
She greeted him with a tongue that was hungry for his and while the fiery kiss lasted his hands moved to her breasts, cupping them entirely under big powerful hands that squeezed them merely to mess with Caroline's breath.

But she was not leaving things like that, she was still trying to win dominance in a kiss that was commanded by him, when she scrapped the back his neck with her nails there was the faintest forfeit that she took with power as well.  
Caroline redrew from his tongue and swept his palate instead, meanwhile her right hand stroked his chest, her touch was unhurried and she felt him playfully wait for her next move.

With a decisive motion she pushed his tongue back into his mouth while mapping his rib cage, he was still caressing her breasts but the kiss was halted when her hand lowered between them, his hands steered to the side of her body accompanying Caroline's next motion.  
She raised a few inches from his lap finding the right angle for his access when she lowered again, she closed her eyes taken by the sensation of her body nesting him so perfectly inside of her.

Klaus nudged her lips with the tip of his tongue so she met that invitation with a teasing tongue on her behalf and for a minute all they did was tease each other with almost kisses until her body demanded that she did something about the rest.  
After two slow sways the momentum rose to a continuous flawless swing that made him hiss and had Caroline moaning loudly without stopping her rocking back and forth movements.

The back of his neck was red with her marks and Caroline rested her forehead against his, their lips met for another kiss and feeling how close she was Klaus trapped her lower lip for a gentle bite.  
Before it all consumed her entirely, Caroline made a beautiful arch with her back and stretched her legs changing their position, she locked her legs around his waist leaving the control on his side now.

Klaus smiled at the beautiful creature in his bed, every detail about Caroline right now was fascinating.  
The milky-white complexion, the long dazzling hair scattered on his sheets, the satisfaction showing on her beautiful features as his hand pressed her lower back while he penetrated her deeper than she had taken him before.

The sounds escaping her parted lips grew of intensity and so did his rhythm, his thrusts came as he held her a bit above the mattress, the hand still pressing her lower back was keeping her that way very conscious of the pleasure he was providing her but he was also careful, an ounce of more pressure and he would break her spine in two.  
Caroline's legs went tighter around him, just like her walls reacting to the hot position he chose for them, her nails started to dig into the hand resting on her hip, keeping her in place every time he invaded her deep and hard.

Klaus' scratched hand eased on his grip of her hip, his necklaces started to glue to his sweaty chest and he forced his teeth hard watching her with closed eyes and overtaken by bliss, she was a beautiful canvas that jerked under him when she came.  
But unexpectedly for him Caroline wasn't basking in aftermath delight and that drowsiness that would end their night after such a powerful release from her.

Instead she was pressing herself against him while her legs remained locked around him, she was recovering from her rush of energy in her own terms but she was unwilling to let him go so soon.  
It was a simple jolt spiking his lust for her and Klaus allowed her to lay down on the bed completely by taking his hand away from the crook of her back while he found his way inside of her more powerful than ever, the thrusts weren't harsh but they caused her to cry out because of his precision and because he wasn't being slow.

The screams followed one another and although he didn't stop, he still cupped her face softly.

"Am I hurting you Caroline?" he asked her ready to stop by her command.

Caroline's screams weren't covered in pain, they were almost liberating. "God… no Nik… I don't want you to stop…"

She just wasn't used to experiencing so much pleasure or as it was, liking sex so much.  
Klaus' pace still waned a bit, he brushed her cheek with his thumb, just before he kissed her lips once.

Between that kiss and another he pushed into her knowing the scream would be lower and he was undeniably right, her eyes were clasped enjoying it all but she wasn't the only one unfamiliar with the intensity tonight.  
Klaus gripped the wood at the bottom of his big classical style bed, his thrusting rhythm had a pulse that left her panting but Klaus felt his control slip away because of the way her skin felt against his, she really became one with him, he crushed her against the mattress but Caroline pressed him down on her with her hands on his back refusing to know where she started and he ended.

The screams were gone and he thought that she had replaced them with a few groans until he realized he was the one grunting and howling in pleasure while Caroline moaned his name between throaty difficult gushes of air.  
He pushed until he felt her trembling but the shudder was so strong that he then noticed he was pulsing along with her, coming undone along with her as if they were one.

Caroline tiredly stroked his sweaty hair when he rested his forehead against her damp neck and he kissed her there feeling spent, the wood had given in under his grip and Klaus let go of that broken piece rolling over to lie on his side.  
He closed his eyes out of breath but Caroline's erratic breath was harder to bring back to normality than his and when he looked at her she was shivering harder now that his heat was taken away from her.

With ease Klaus slid a hand under her shoulder plates and scooped her body closer to him, he was resting on his side and sheltered her carefully against him so that his warmth would cover her entirely.  
Caroline brought her arms closer to her chest hiding inside of his strong shield and she remained like that until there was nothing but warmth soothing her.

* * *

"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this." The kid who was left behind whispered.

The other two laughed making fun of him.

"What if we get caught?" he asked his friends frightened.

"By a ghost?" One of the kids joked.

The scared one nodded. "The church is haunted, my mom says that some priest was hexed and when he finally lost his mind he set fire to the church with a bunch of people in it."

The duo standing in front of the door mischievously raised their arms and made spooky sounds, the other one stopped talking but he knew he was right, St. Anne's Church was closed for years now, it had been restored but the popular belief that the place was haunted stuck and eventually they closed the church again.  
Every now and then people still heard the desperate yells of those who died that horrendous night.

The two brave kids laughed opening the door and they all sneaked inside the church using the flashlights that they stole from their parents, one of them carelessly shed light at the altar and the three of them started yelling scared.  
They dropped the flashlights and ran away screaming, there were four girls hanging from the ceiling with ropes around their necks, and they were all wearing white shirts with black skirts, socks and shoes.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Superheroes –  _The Script_

Wild Place –  _Glass Pear_

How do you feel today –  _Gabrielle Aplin_

Sente –  _Buraka Som Sistema_

Requiem for Blue Jeans _\- Bastille_

Drunk in love –  _Ed Sheeran_ (Beyonce cover)


	4. Damsel

"He will be with you soon." Josh left Marcel waiting in the big foyer crossing paths with Klaus who was still sliding a Henley down his torso.

"Your rules should include a dress-code." Klaus was nauseated by the grey summer scarf around Marcel's neck.

"You've only been here for two days and already you've disrespected me in front of my crew, made fun of my rules and hurt one of mine." Marcel was definitely grouchy.

"The possibilities of what might happen until we reach the weekend go from annihilation to showing my docile side." Klaus smiled with malice as he picked up a glass and dripped his blood into it after biting his hand.

"What do you want in exchange for that?" Marcel asked the obvious question.

Klaus rested the glass next to him on a table. "There was a little spat between us but it's nothing that we can't work our way around."

"Every minute that we waste in these theatrical riddles of yours, it's a minute less that Diego has, so really Klaus, go straight to the point."

"When did you become so serious Marcel? You were always the fun one."

"I took your vision Klaus and I made something worthy out of it, I surrounded myself with supernatural people who were willing to die for the same ideal and I managed to do in less than a decade what you couldn't for 10 centuries. I built a loyal family."

"And I applaud you for it."

"Name the price on your blood." Marcel demanded with tension in his voice.

"I just finished remodeling the house and I'll be organizing a party tonight for a special guest." Klaus had this small movement with the upper part of his body like he was weighed down. "And since this is your land and apparently I need permission to breathe while I'm here…"

Marcel parted his arms with a big smile. "You are my maker, the blood that thickens my veins comes from you so what is mine is yours as long as you remember that the Quarter is  _mine_."

"Can I bring a friend to the party mommy?" Klaus lowered his chin scorning Marcel.

Marcel considered it in silence.

Klaus took the glass with his blood and held it between them. "I reckon your friend has about 10 minutes before he starts coughing his lungs."

Marcel reached out for the glass. "Good thing we have a party tonight to celebrate his survival."

Just as Marcel was about to turn away Klaus called him out. "By the way Marcellus… I'm quite intrigued by Caroline, she's a very assertive young lady yet she has never been interested to find out about her mysterious past?"

"We are all trying to run away from it Klaus."

Klaus rolled his eyes. "Please go away, your negativity is borderline loathsome. For some reason all kings look so unhappy in all the illustrations."

Marcel left with a big fake smile.

Only then Caroline came out of her hiding point in the corridor. "Diego was just a ruse for a shallow party?"

"Witty mind games make me happy."

Caroline had two small steps before stopping, symbolically she was waiting half way wondering if he was still interested after another lively night of sex. "You're like this big quirky kid who likes to poke things just to see a reaction."

He took one step closer leaving only a tiny space between them. "Marcel stubbornly forgets that I have no tolerance for smug idiocy when I am the wrecking ball in the room."

Caroline didn't take her eyes away from his a single second as he cradled her face strongly in his hands.

"However the prevailing topic this morning is how much I enjoyed last night."

"My resistance was damaged by that strong Scotch that you were drinking."

He circled his arm around her waist and had Caroline pinned against him with a single move. "I don't accept excuses sweetheart, I wanted you and you wanted me. And now I have a broken bed and an irresistible desire to kiss you. "

"I can only help you with one." she whispered with a smile.

Klaus kissed her deeply, the memory of their night was still fresh and perhaps that would explain why the lust for her was still so powerful, grant him the choice and he would have her naked and moaning again.

But Caroline broke the kiss in discomfort. "You taste like blood…"

"You should get used to it." Klaus stroked her face expectant for her reaction.

She put space between them. "I need to go before Marcel gets back and finds me here." she turned away with a small smile.

Klaus didn't stop her but his good mood was altered by her hasty departure.

* * *

"Care?" Katherine shouted into the house.

 _"In here."_  
  
Katherine found her in the bedroom getting dressed after a shower, she sat on the bed sipping on her coffee. "Did you get my message?"

"I can't believe that Kaleb was staying in Baton Rouge all this time, we were worried sick and Bonnie… Ugh!" Caroline closed her lips angrily.

Katherine handed her the top that was lying on the bed. "I know. I wanted to pin his balls to the wall but I thought that would be a bit too dramatic and depressing for the playmates to witness so I just shoved him across the room."

"But why would he do this? He was so in love with Bonnie… none of this makes any sense."

"I always had my doubts about Kaleb…"

Caroline brushed her wet hair with a glance towards Katherine. "Only because you tried to get his attention when he first arrived to New Orleans but he shut you down instantly, so you developed a grudge."

"You know me well." Katherine picked up the really cool jacket that Caroline chose to wear today, when the other reached out for it she smiled.

Caroline took the dark blue slim-fit jacket with a slow motion. "Didn't he even break when he saw Bonnie?"

Katherine shook her head. "It was like he was someone else, he looked at us so cold and indifferent… It was sort of creepy actually, it was like looking at a stranger with Kaleb's face."

"Let's hurry up and go over to Campus, Bonnie needs us more than ever." Caroline grabbed her keys and phone.

"So…" Katherine stood up with a rising grin. "Are you going to tell me how you got a hickey or not?"

Caroline panicked and searched the first mirror she found. "I have a hickey?" she frantically searched her neck and collarbone for any marks but everything was clean of bruises.

"It's barely covered by your bra." Katherine whispered as she walked by Caroline.

She moved her top shocked to find a tiny little bruise. "I'm going to kill that bastard."

"Love marks are the sign of good sex so I wouldn't execute him just yet."

Caroline composed herself and faced the friend waiting for her by the front door. "I met someone…"

"That likes to suck." Katherine chuckled loudly.

"Well…" Caroline crossed the lapels of her jacket covering her chest completely.

Katherine gasped. "You lost your vampire virginity?"

Caroline made this throaty complaining sound for the chosen words.

"This is the same guy from Mardi Gras' night, isn't it?" Katherine just knew it.

"I met this really hot guy and we kissed but then it felt so good to kiss him that I wanted more and I thought that I wasn't going to see him again but then I did and I've been having the sex of my life with him. But Marcel won't be happy about it."

"Marcel is not the owner of your body Caroline."

Katherine didn't care what others thought of her and it was that same lack of judgment that she spared with the ones she kept close to her heart and it really gave Caroline the serenity she needed today. "Our choices are our own." she stated the only rule they had inside their Coven.

Katherine smiled opening the front door. "But I still want a name when you feel ready to share."

* * *

Matt parked in the big driveway with a deliberate delay before exiting his pickup, he was going to keep calm and not lose his temper, he clutched the wheel for a bit, calling upon all that benevolent good magic that existed in him naturally and only then he walked to the house.  
The girls that Katherine mentioned were all outside by the pool having fun but he didn't see Kaleb with them so he paved through the house looking for him.

Easily Matt picked up on a flow of energy and followed it to the floor upstairs, down the hallway he could feel it getting stronger and he came to a room with an open door to find a circle of girls holding hands.  
Matt gradually came into the room watching the scene attentively, unlike the ones outside by the pool this group of girls wasn't here for fun, they were witches performing a ritual and guessing by the pile of human bones in the centre of the circle, Matt deduced they were consecrating the body of some powerful witch.

Suddenly they all stopped murmuring the spell but only one of them spoke loudly.

"His white magic is blocking the ritual."

Matt followed the direction the witch was looking at and Kaleb came out of the dark part of the room.

"What are you doing here, mate?" he asked upset.

"I came to ask you the exact same thing, dude." Matt harshly answered back.

* * *

"I know that college is depressing for some girls but this is just strange…" Katherine pointed out as they went by another sobbing group gathered by the front gate, it was already strange that they found a few girls in the parking lot crying.

"Maybe Eva knows what happened…" Caroline smiled at one of the girls walking in her direction, Eva was part of Davina's coven but she was one of the few that were actually nice and had a good relation with every other coven in town.

"Hey… have you heard about Monique already?"

"I heard that she was missing." Caroline was evidently waiting for the worst now.

Eva sniffled cleaning a few stray tears. "They found her and the rest of her coven at St. Anne's, they were all hanging from the ceiling." she broke into tears again.

"That's horrible…" Caroline's heart sank with the news.

"I don't know how they disappeared from the party… we were all just dancing and doing silly love spells, then someone noticed that Monique was gone and we all went searching for her but got separated in the woods. When Davina used blue fire to call us all back into the old witch house everyone returned except Monique's coven." Eva was shaking her head. "I think the family funeral service will be held tomorrow…" she lastly said before leaving to cry alone.

Caroline looked at Katherine with a sad face but the other was already cringing in anticipation as she spotted a girl with a huge amount of flyers headed her way.

"Oh God… it's coming." she said between teeth.

"We will be doing a memorial tonight to mourn Monique and the others." Davina handed Katherine a flyer.

Katherine refused to take it. "It's a perfect good waste of a candle."

Davina lowered her hand discouraged. "She was one of us Katherine, try to find some empathy."

Katherine breathed in and touched her heart. "No, there's nothing there, it's cold and dead." she smiled.

Davina gave up moving on to hand out flyers to the rest of the students.

"Whose being dramatic now? You or the college girls who hated Monique as much as we did?" Caroline asked right behind Katherine as the other started walking to the dorms.

"It's a very close call apparently." Katherine rolled her eyes when she saw all the flowers and candles already mounting by some random tree where a little shrine was being built for the deceased girls.

"We need to tell Bonnie the news carefully, I'm sure she hasn't left her dorm all day and that she's crying in bed all miserable…" Caroline stopped by Bonnie's door. "We should have brought cupcakes, she likes those."

Katherine opened the door expecting exactly what Caroline just described but they both froze by the threshold because Bonnie was viciously using a scissor on a shirt, when she couldn't get fast enough with it, she destroyed the fabric with her bare hands.

"Bon Bon?" Katherine asked slowly.

"I hate that jerk face!" Bonnie dropped the shirt to a pile of things she already destroyed.

"Care… you need to step in." Katherine whispered when Bonnie screamed enervated and broke a frame by slamming it hard against the corner of her desk.

"That lying, cheating son of a…" Bonnie tore the picture into a bunch of little pieces. "Goat." she said with growing fury.

"Ok, she's cursing…" Caroline had no idea what to do.

"I waited for him, I refused to believe that he left on purpose…" Bonnie screamed again. "I kept making all these excuses in my head because we were in love but that slimy dirt ball was just having the time of his life with a bunch of nude models."

Katherine and Caroline flinched when the pile of shredded stuff burst into flames.

"I hate him and I hate that stupid face of his." Bonnie decisively grabbed the last thing on her bed, the very last gift he gave her before leaving.

She held the big teddy bear that Kaleb gave her as a Christmas present before disappearing and she moved the scissors fast against it, Caroline tried stopping her with a small motion of her body but before she could ask Bonnie to calm down she was already cutting the tummy of the bear, refusing to have any memory left of Kaleb.

"Bye Buttons…" Caroline waved at the cute teddy sad.

Bonnie was just lashing out on the bear and she only stopped because something fell from inside of it, the big thud of metal hitting the floor pulled Katherine and Caroline closer.

"What is that?" Katherine asked first.

Caroline put the fire down with a single gesture and tried to have a better look at what Bonnie just picked up from the ground.

"I don't know… I think it's a… key?" Bonnie turned the big round piece over and outlined a series of engravings on it.

"Kaleb gave you a teddy with a key inside?" Katherine hated how silly she sounded.

"A key for what?" Caroline was unfamiliar with the piece but had a feeling that Bonnie wasn't. "Bon?" she pressed for answers.

Bonnie lifted a hand and a book flew from the small shelve right into her hand. "I think I've seen this before." she handed the metal thing to Katherine while searching in her book for the image she vaguely held in her memory.

Katherine felt the weight of the metal, it was heavy and the energy from it was prickling all the way to her.

"I think that's an Ascendant, it's a mystical relic used to harness the power of an eclipse." Bonnie showed the girls the image of what it would look like open.

Caroline tried opening it unsuccessfully and looked at Bonnie for help.

Bonnie closed the book somberly. "It belonged to Malachai's family. To Kai…" she said the name with hatred.

The blonde handed the key over to Bonnie knowing it was her right to keep it. "Maybe this is what Kaleb wrote about in his diary."

Bonnie didn't answer, she was too ill to define a single cogent thought.

* * *

"Why are you performing a ritual to awake your Ancestral line? I thought you didn't want to make magic that way." Matt confronted Kaleb in the kitchen. "And what's with all the British words? Your two years in England hardly made you a British expert... or are you just trying to impress the girls with your shady background?"

Now that they were alone, Matt kept pacing around incredulous and spewing a lot of questions.  
The other warlock kept this sort of annoying smile refusing to answer but visibly amused with the scene.

"Is that why you've been hiding out here all this time?" Matt stopped on that question hopeful.

"I was in plain sight the entire time,  _dude._ "

Matt lost it with the comment sided by a smirk and punched Kaleb hard.

"Easy Matt…" The other hissed with a strange menace in his eyes while touching his throbbing lip.

It was something that Matt had never seen from Kaleb but maybe he was just hurt. "You are my best friend and you just took off without a word… if all you wanted was to dig into your family roots and magic why didn't you just say so?"

"Why would I choose to be a vulgar warlock when I can be the best?"

Matt fought the emerging will to punch him again. "We were all worried that you might be dead."

"Not for the time being." The other smirked again.

Matt felt sickened, he didn't even recognize his friend right now but he wasn't going to punch him again, at least not before checking his phone that was vibrating with new messages.  
He turned his back on Kaleb to read them and the other picked up a kitchen knife, holding it tightly in his hand he decided to aim at the neck and swiftly get rid of Matt.

"Kaleb… how did you get your hands on the family inheritance of the man who killed Bonnie's Grandmother?" Matt asked barely as he was reading the messages through.

He slid the knife down his hand and hid it under the long sleeve of his shirt. "I don't know what you are talking about." he told Matt as the other turned around to him.

"Bonnie found the Ascendant that you hid." Matt insisted.

"Then perhaps it's time that I go back and… apologize vehemently." he searched for the right words. "I've missed you all so much."

"You have a lot of explaining to do before you even start apologizing for all the crap that you put us through during all these months." Matt wasn't going to give him much slack. "Especially to your girlfriend."

He smiled taking a jacket for the ride. "I can't wait to grovel and make peace with her." he also kept the knife with him, depending on the odds he might just allow Matt to arrive to New Orleans alive.

* * *

"Are you ok?" Caroline asked Bonnie as the three girls went up to the porch.

The house that belonged to Sheila and where Bonnie lived alone until she moved to Campus was always a hard place to return to but she was hopeful to find something useful in Sheila's belongings. "I am." Bonnie sighed.

Katherine and Caroline held their pinkies for Bonnie who took it for a pinky swear, the three of them laughed somewhat silly before Bonnie unlocked the house.

"I missed this house." Katherine said turning the lights on, she used to crash in here so many nights during High School.

"I miss our slumber parties." Caroline sat on the sofa.

Bonnie carried a box to the coffee table, she was reserved about what she missed, the pain of losing Grams was a scar that refused to close.

"Uh, baby pictures." Caroline grabbed the adorable pictures at once.

"You were so cute Bonnie." Katherine slouched next to Caroline.

"My hair was amazing." Bonnie glanced at the picture Caroline was holding but she easily went back to her search. "I found it."

The old Grimoire was pulled out of the box with extreme care, it was a family legacy that Bonnie didn't feel ready to take upon and she opened it with shaking hands.  
Her childhood memory hadn't failed her much and she found the drawing she was looking for, it was the key but it was closed like now and under it there wasn't a spell, just a word in Latin.

**Immortalitas.**

"You definitely have my interest now." Katherine changed places on the sofa and sat next to Bonnie.

"Remember that in Greek mythology those who had immortality didn't have eternal youth." Bonnie reminded her.

Katherine adjusted the steamy top around her tiny waist. "Buzzkill."

Bonnie played with the key, shifting it in her hand curious. "We need to do real research on this..."

"All those books that the Elder sisters took would come in handy now." Katherine almost suggested that they broke into the Elder house.

"I think I know who can help us." Caroline's voice was like a soft hint on something sinful.

* * *

"My house looks progressively more appealing by the day." Klaus greeted the three girls waiting for him in the lobby.

Caroline took initiative to explain the sudden visit. "This is Bonnie and Katherine, they are part of my coven and we stumbled upon something that we need to learn more about but we have a problem."

"One that you think I could solve." Klaus said with a smile.

"We gathered all these really cool and helpful books and we kept them all in the library at Tulane but Sophie and her sister intervened, they confiscated the books because a coven can't be exposed to that much information without permission."

"In other words, they felt threatened by a group of young girls educating themselves about their craft." Klaus easily replied to Caroline.

She made this adorable pleading face. "Can we please ravish your library?"

How could he say no to that?

* * *

"… would it hurt to make a simple call?" Matt turned the radio off, he was too pissed to listen to music.

"I really hurt your feelings there, champion." the other dropped exhausted with the drama.

Matt hit the brakes raging. "Do you know how stressful it is to be the only guy in a coven full of moody stubborn women? Who won't listen and constantly get into trouble? Do you?" Matt insisted.

"I know how it would feel if I was there when there was a pillow fight." he smirked.

"You weren't funny before and you are still not funny Kaleb." Matt started the car cranky.

" _That it should come to this!"_ he had a sigh looking outside his window.

"So you took the time off to finally read Hamlet?" Matt sneered. "At least you did one thing right."

He smiled without looking at Matt, the Quarterback unwillingly just earned his chance to live.

* * *

Caroline was trying hard to keep focused on her task but the book was boring compared to the man on the other side of the glass door, he was having a heated conversation with some young guy and Caroline was outlining his body with her eyes.

"It's not hard imagining how hot the sex is when I look at him." Katherine changed the page of her book with flair.

"Huh?" Caroline jolted her head to Katherine.

Katherine lifted her eyebrows a little before changing another page.  
Caroline buried her eyes on her book.

"But I can totally see that he thinks that it was the best sex of his life as well when he looks at you." Katherine smiled without leaving her book.

Caroline closed her book forcefully.

"I love all that wonderful sexual tension that still exists between you and him." Katherine rested the book against her chest so she could eye Caroline instead. "And he totally melted when you batted your eyelashes in the lobby."

"You had sex with Klaus?" Bonnie voiced her puzzlement.

"He can hear you." Caroline said between teeth.

Bonnie leaned over from her red velvet chair. "I met him yesterday at Mystic, he was having a drink with Marcel so when did this happen?" she whispered extremely low.

"During Mardi Gras. And last night..." Caroline wasn't sure how Bonnie would react.

"Ok." Her friend simply smiled returning to her research, it wasn't her business who Caroline was entangling herself with, besides she trusted Caroline's choices blindly.

The exact reason why no one really reacted when Caroline left the library and joined the two men outside in the courtyard.

"How do you expect me to know if it's raining tonight?" Josh complained already overwhelmed with the list of things he had to do.

"That's why I sire others to do things for me Josh." Klaus foreshadowed how much the talk was straining him. "I expect things to be done when I ask my minions to do them."

"I'm struggling to get everything on time but I don't know if I should prepare the party outside or not." Josh admitted.

Klaus growled unpleased with the mundane talk.

"Google says that it's going to be a warm night." Caroline tried to ease the mood. "You should set the lights out here but keep the drinks and food inside the house, also don't forget to leave all the connection doors open but lock the rooms because I don't think  _he_  will like to share those with the common guests." Caroline whispered to Josh.

He laughed due to her expression but felt soothed at once as well. "Do I strict the guests boundaries to the courtyard or do I set lights all the way to the garden?" Josh asked his new party ally.

"Klaus wants to showcase the new decoration so keep people close to the house, some nice calm music to instigate people to talk and maybe add some waiters to give it a classic touch." she looked at Klaus. "I think you want something casual yet worthy of the Mikaelson name."

He wasn't easily won, yet he smiled and after a few seconds he addressed Josh without taking his view away from Caroline. "Why are you still here Josh?"

"Right! I have a million things to do." Josh ran away trying to remember all the tips Caroline gave him.

"Perhaps I should have handed you the helm of this ship in the morning."

Caroline nodded. "I could plan parties for a living."

"Watch it!" Josh yelled not far from them, he just bumped into someone carrying a bunch of glasses and now half of them were broken.

Klaus closed his eyes and covered them with a hand. "Why am I keeping him alive?" When there wasn't an answer, he looked for Caroline to find her taking charge of the mess.

She easily reorganized the route the waiters were taking with the glasses and kept Josh out of the way, in less than one hour she had his vampires hanging lights that would make these beautiful lines from across the courtyard all the way to the house.  
And before sunset they were all lighting up tiny round candles that were on top of flowers that Caroline personally placed inside of vases with water, there were thousands of them paving the big party area and she grinned happy with the result as she watched the effect from the balcony.

Everything was ready and now she only needed the host to approve of her choices.  
She found Klaus in his bedroom ending a call and dropping the phone on top of his bed.

"Everything is ready for the cocktail party." she sweetly informed him.

"It goes without saying that you and your friends are invited."

"I think I'm going home and change for tonight then, I'm curious about your mystery guest."

Klaus pulled the dark Henley over his head and dropped that one on top of his bed as well. "I've arranged for your dress to be delivered in less than one hour."

She grazed her lower lip with her teeth as he neared her shirtless and losing the belt on the way.

"My friends are down there…" she managed to say before he kissed her.

He kissed her passionately and she really answered him back, there wasn't the faint taste of blood this time around and she mapped his back with a touch that was becoming familiar to both, just like his tongue sweeping hers before redrawing so that she would search for his tongue instead.

"I could attempt to not make you scream so loud this time." he kissed her lips while holding her close.

She narrowed her eyes at him keeping the beads of his necklace between two fingers. "You marked me..."

He followed the same motion her eyes did. "I did?"

"There's a stupid hickey on my chest and I'm not happy about it, I don't like body marks Nik."

Klaus leaned over kissing her lips once. "It's up to me then to make sure it doesn't happen again love."

Her breath picked up as soon as he went around to her back, he moved her hair clearing her neck to him and then kissed her skin slowly, he took the jacket down her shoulders and Caroline closed her eyes as soon as it hit the ground.  
Klaus kept on kissing her neck while his hand sneaked under the top feeling her stomach, he could feel her heart hammering there and it made him smile.

Without hurry Klaus pushed the top up her torso and kissed her shoulder plates as soon as the fabric left the contact of her skin, he brushed a strap of her bra down to clear a path for his lips but his hands moved to the tight Jeans she was wearing.  
Caroline placed her hand over his stopping him as soon as he started unbuttoning her Jeans.

Klaus scratched the skin on her shoulder as he moved to whisper in her ear. "Trust me sweetheart…"

Her breath was hoarse and she was shaking but her hand was still stopping him from going any further. "I don't want to have sex Nik, not like this."

Klaus kissed her cheek just next to her ear. "That's not what I want Caroline."

He wasn't forcing his touch on her or ignoring her hesitations and Caroline faced him to find that unwavering security in him, he gave her a sweet kiss on the lips waiting for her choice and Caroline's hand moved away from his.  
Klaus only unbuttoned the first button on her pants, he caressed gently that exposed skin touching the rim of her panties but without crossing that line, he did however keep on kissing her neck with slow moist kisses.

She moaned loudly when he moved his lips to the back of her neck, he held her hair so that he could kiss his way down to the beginning of her spine, she moaned again when she felt the tip of his tongue licking her there.  
When he moved away from her back she wasn't sure of his plan but undeniably there was a slight cocky appearance when he stood in front of her with a smile and a hand for her to take.

She wished she wasn't shaking so much but it simply wouldn't stop, she also knew she had to do this, she had to find out what he had in mind, if anything Klaus seemed to defy her logic daily.  
Caroline was finally decisive when she took his hand and followed him to the bathroom, when he started getting undressed she did the same.

Klaus admired her like it was the first time he was watching her naked and she was awed by the fascination in his eyes, although she was aware of how pretty she was he was the first to find her so beautiful that she could actually see herself in his eyes.  
Klaus asked for her hand again and they stepped under a powerful spray of cold water, it surprised her that he forgot that she was human and that the water needed to be warm but she wasn't under it for long, he moved his body against hers so that she had to move as well and she ended up with her back against the cold wall of the shower, he pinned her there with his strong body and pierced her with such an intense stare that his eyes almost seemed to fade the blue entirely and become darker.

He rested his forearms on each side of her face and Caroline gulped down beset, from then on he didn't speak, he didn't move, he didn't even breath.  
He just looked at her, like he was still undressing her but going much deeper than the clothes she was wearing, he was aiming at her soul.

And it was in there, in that grave silence, with the water hitting his back, shielding her from it and warming her with his body instead that Caroline understood.  
Klaus was different from anyone she ever met, he was as powerful as she was and he fully embraced it, just like she did, they could easily harm each other but there was a greater will to protect each other because they understood power like no one.

Power protects power.

Klaus smiled when the water started falling warm against his back after Caroline used her magic. "I wonder what you really are capable of."

"I want to show you."

He fell for that sparkling hope in her eyes easily and stroked her cheek wanting a glimpse into what she hid from the world.  
And she wasn't afraid, she was in love with the closeness and started caressing his chest and his neck with care.

"Do you trust me?" he asked her serious.

"I do." she answered with conviction.

"Remember that tonight."

Caroline nodded and kissed him with a passion that she still wasn't fully able to control when she was around him, still inside that shower and for the longest time all they did was kiss.  
When he held her within the reach of his arms, his hands slowly roamed through her naked body and while kissing him the thought rushed to her mind as lazily as their tongues were playing with each other, she really liked being in his arms.

* * *

"The first guests are arriving…" Katherine said upset that she didn't go home and change for the party.

"Go get a drink, you always look great, no one will notice that you aren't wearing your best cocktail outfit." Bonnie assured her.

Well, she was wearing black leggings and ankle boots and the top was one of her favorite with a see-through back in lace. "I'll just snoop around the house while everyone is busy." she sneakily said.

"Or do that…" Bonnie sighed, Katherine's growing delinquency was becoming an issue.

Katherine took a champagne glass as she glided by a waiter. "Pink, my favorite." she dropped as a comment, if only they made it black.

She smiled effortlessly at a couple of people she didn't know and then furtively she rushed up the long staircase, she was excited with a chance to explore the house and she wasn't going to waste it.

The first two doors were locked which plummeted the resolution. "I need to learn how to break a lock."

She moved on to the next door while someone was coming out of another room, it was pure luck that the door was unlocked and she hid inside of a dark room peeking to find Caroline outside, she was about to call her when Klaus showed up grabbing Caroline by the waist and bringing her to him so that he could meet her lips with his.  
Katherine froze her breath and body, he was too busy kissing Caroline and robbing her of air to notice the cracked open door and thankfully the couple moved on downstairs.

She searched for the light switch, since she was inside she was going to find out where she was. "Oh." Katherine said stunned, the room was enormous but the only thing inside of it was a wooden brown coffin on top of a steel structure. "Sure…" Katherine threw her hands in the air. "I like creepy just like any other dark witch." she came closer to the coffin slowly and held the lid ready to open it. "Please don't be something gross that will haunt me to the end of my days." she quietly begged.

With determination she opened the coffin and found a grey body, he wasn't decomposing or with bloody wounds, he just appeared to be sleeping and although he looked desiccated she still found him strangely attractive.  
He had great slick hair and he was wearing a fancy suit and tie, the face was lifeless but she could tell he had one of those strong cheekbone faces.

"Well, hello handsome." she rested her forearms on the edge of the coffin and leaned over to speak closely to him. "You seem to be having a bad day." she looked at the ancient dagger sticking from his chest. "I wonder what would happen if I took that away from your heart…" she was mischievous when she smiled. "Are you this sort of really badass villain or are you my sleeping Prince Charming?"

* * *

Marcel arrived to the party knowing the faces, Klaus invited the big names in the city but he couldn't see him anywhere, he looked at the staircase just as Caroline was coming down.  
Looking beautiful like always in a sleeveless yellow dress while her hair was all straight and glowing tonight, she took a glass for herself and greeted the Dean from her college with a big smile.

Marcel would have signaled her closer but he was forced to pause when shortly after her came Klaus, strutting down the staircase of his house with a beaming smirk.  
Marcel's grip around the glass was so forceful that he broke it in two and had champagne all over his white shirt.

"That's one nasty stain that won't come off easily." Klaus toyed as he approached with a drink in his hand and sauntering a flawless blue buttoned up shirt with black pants.

"If you only knew all the times I've thought of that myself." Marcel grumbled.

"Marcel." Caroline neared them with a heart-stopping smile.

"Hey baby girl, you look beautiful." he easily smiled nonetheless at her.

She cutely pulled her shoulders together. "This is nice…" she took turns looking at them. "We are all here with great champagne and the house looks so pretty... and we are all here." she repeated awkwardly diving into the champagne in her hand.

"All we are missing is the guest of honor." Marcel took another glass of champagne.

"And right on time he arrives." Klaus announced with a huge grin.

Everyone looked at the door but Caroline's heart stopped beating for a few seconds, Tyler Lockwood just crossed the front door stealing all the attention and almost quieting an entire crowd with his presence.

"An entrance to make so many jealous." Klaus had his drink unaffected by the turmoil he just caused.

* * *

"Tyler?" Marcel grunted furious. "Your guest was Tyler?" he finally roared at Klaus.

The other was calmly enjoying his drink.

Marcel paced around the den like a mad animal. "I was expecting Elijah or even Rebekah but not the leader of the werewolves." he looked at Caroline about to direct his fury at her. "Why isn't he in wolf form like the others?"

"Marcel, please calm down." she asked him quietly.

"You had one task Caroline, to turn them all." His voice grew of tone. "That's the only thing I ever ordered from you."

"And I did it." she defended herself. "I turned them all but… I couldn't do it to Ty…" she knew him well so she expected the outburst next.

"He's the first one that you should have turned." Marcel shouted.

"Calm down." she shouted back at him. "You're making a scene." she lowered her voice.

"Your loyalty lies with me not with the wolves and you've disrespected me by going behind my back and doing what you wanted instead of what was right for our family. I've indulged in every spoiled desire Caroline and I've provided you with the best life anyone from all the six blocks in the French Quarter ever had. I gave you everything while my only demand was that you took a stand in this war."

Caroline lowered her eyes. "I've always done what you asked of me but I always said that my stand was neutral when it came to a war that you started."

"I'm very disappointed Caroline…" he acidly said.

"You are angry and rage is hardening your tongue." Klaus said from across the room. "Perhaps you need a little time before speaking again."

"For the last time Niklaus, stay out of this." Marcel hissed at Klaus.

"I'm not as benevolent to unwise yelling." Klaus warned him.

"I know why you are disappointed Marcel but Tyler is my friend." Caroline tried appeasing things. "And you were a better father than I could hope for."

"If you stand in the middle of a war without picking a side, you will end dead. This is not what I expected from you." Marcel coldly replied.

"I should be allowed to choose my side, which is right in the middle of a barricade that you built to keep me away from my friends." Caroline's tears started to sting her eyes.

Marcel confronted her with a step closer. "This is how you pay me back for all that I've given you?" he asked genuinely hurt.

"What is this really about?" Caroline whispered, trying to swallow her tears.

"He made me." Marcel pointed at Klaus turning the tables on the couple. "He turned me and educated me to be his image, but I outdid him on my own and I knew he wouldn't stand to know all that I've accomplished." Marcel turned to Klaus. "That's why I never invited you to see my empire, because I know you. I know how selfish and sadistic you are, I knew you would arrive here and see everything that I have and instantly want it for yourself. I knew." Marcel raged at Klaus. "Your demented twisted vision of happiness is to steal what others have, you borrow feelings from others because you can't feel them for yourself."

Klaus closed up his expression and forced his teeth together.

"Did you have me followed?" Caroline's voice erupted from behind Marcel.

Marcel only turned his head to her. "You were seen leaving this house in the morning, it's not hard to guess what you've been giving my sire over the night."

Caroline half-closed her eyes making Marcel fly across the room, he hit the wall so hard that all the stuff on the shelf nearby fell to the ground. "I know that you think you have the right to be a dick to me, but you don't."

Marcel was breathing hard and rested his weight on one knee, he sarcastically smiled as he lifted his head. "You've been with Klaus for a day and you think you know him? So well that I'm the one on the other side of your magic instead of him?"

She didn't answer but she glanced at Klaus.  
Marcel stood up looking at the man cautious of his every action. "Let me tell you about Niklaus Mikaelson, he arrives to New Orleans and like a brat instantly wants what I have, I've perfected his dream and he wants it back so what does he do? He goes after the ones closer to me."

Caroline had enough and walked out on the drama, she made it all the way to the staircase when Marcel held her back by the arm.

"Caroline… I need you to see what he's trying to do."

"No." she snapped hauling her arm away from him. "I don't care about the pissing contest that you've got going on with Klaus. God, maybe he even did seduce me on purpose but screw you for looking at me like I'm a weakness." she left him standing there with a lot of eyes on him.

* * *

Bonnie refused the champagne and hugged the pile of books she was borrowing from Klaus closer to her chest, she made a furtive escape that was only interrupted when she saw Matt's car arriving to the street.  
Everything slowed down in her world when Kaleb left the car, her chest clenched in a piercing pain that only grew as he started walking towards her.

"Bonnie…" he opened his arms by the side of his body with a sorrowed look.

"You came back…" she hated how different the scene was from all the encounters she imagined between them for months.

He smiled a little just before he stopped near her and cupped her face. "I'm here because of you." he held her eyes hostage of an intense blazing look. "I'm sorry for having you worried like that, there were some matters that I really had to look into alone."

She was listening but none of it was actually resonating with her. "You ignored my calls and messages for months."

"But you never left my thought." His voice was like velvet, smoothly trying to win her over.

Bonnie looked at him dazed for a second.

He took advantage of that and seductively smiled at her. "And since I know that I haven't left yours, we should end this conversation somewhere private."

Bonnie frowned. "I'm not forgiving you just because you have pretty eyes." she clasped her lips mad and buried her knee strongly in the middle of his legs.

Matt chuckled proud and held the door for Bonnie as she strutted to the car. "I think that you can find another ride home." he told a moaning Kaleb.

* * *

"I'm usually a shy guy, I'm not used to all the attention." Tyler enjoyed his drink by the fountain.

Klaus arrived with a smile because he noticed the two girls flirting with Tyler just a few feet away from them. "The swamp has been your home for the last year, I believe that it's time that you start enjoying life again."

"After I have your word again that my pack is safe."

"I have my best vampires on it and Marcel wouldn't make a move now that you are back by my hand." Klaus guaranteed with a hand stretched out.

Tyler shook his hand as a confirmation of their deal. "Did you do this to ensure the werewolf support or to give Caroline her friend back?"

Klaus looked up at the balcony where Caroline was. "She's not an easy woman to impress."

Tyler laughed holding the drink inches away from his lips. "Caroline is a gypsy, she's always slipping away from our reach no matter how hard we try to hold on to her. Just like her magic, that kind of spirit isn't meant to be kept under control and I'd be really ticked off if you tried to hold her down like Marcel did."

Klaus had his champagne thoughtful while Tyler decided to take a chance with the sizzling duo and by the time Klaus looked up again Caroline was gone.  
He handed the glass to a waiter and headed back inside the house but annoyingly came face to face with Diego.

"Interesting party…" he sounded every bit uninterested in it. "There are too many girls on vervain though and the music choice is crappy but…" he found his smile back. "I do love the rush of your blood man, so thanks for the donation."

"You are most welcomed Diego." Klaus smiled. "Now hand me your daylight ring."

Diego grimaced doing it without resistance.

Klaus admired the ring. "That's such a beautiful symbol."

"It's the same from Caroline's coven…" Diego stared at the ring. "Why did I just give you that?"

"I'm an Original, my blood sires even when it's a loan." Klaus closed his hand around the ring. "Now tomorrow morning, I want you to go have a nice long walk in the sun."

Diego lethargically nodded.

* * *

Caroline faced the fire in the mantel so deeply lost in it that she missed the moment Klaus stopped next to her, she only reacted when he took the glass from her hand.  
She bit her lip with a smile as he dangled a champagne glass with a beautiful flame burning inside of it.

"Were you going to bring the house down with fire?" he asked a tad fearful.

"I should." Caroline yanked the glass from his hand upset. "You threw me under the bus with Marcel." she tossed the glass inside the mantel.

"He was suspicious already and I just jumped a few unnecessary leaps. We need to keep Marcel busy with something else while we focus on what you and I are going to do."

She stared at him blankly, if there were a thousand thoughts rushing through her head he couldn't tell and he, the Immortal and most feared creature in the world was hanging on every breath and word that she was keeping to herself.

Caroline slowly took a decisive step in her peep-toe pumps closer to him. "If you ever use me Klaus, turning every full-moon into a werewolf will be the very least of your problems."

He licked his lips with a smile as she walked away holding all that fire that ignited everything inside of him.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Cryin Wolf -  _ZZ Ward ft. Kendrick Lamar_

She's so mean -  _Matchbox Twenty_

Don't let me go –  _RAIGN_

Are you that somebody –  _BANKS_  (Acoustic Aaliyah Cover)

Walk -  _Kwabs_ _  
_  
Boom Boom - _Big Head Todd & The Monsters_


	5. Rites of passage

Matt sprinted that last mile, running was one of his favorite activities in the world and he shot across the park with a smile, it was a beautiful morning and he felt alive and surrounded by good energy.  
However when he saw her, Matt slowed down removing one of the earbuds, Katherine had an uncharacteristic kind of energy that really messed with him.

"It's grey and about to rain, it's visibly a perfect day to have a sweaty walk through the park." she smiled having her coffee while standing under a big tree.

He looked at her blue stilettos. "You forgot your running shoes."

"I don't need the exercise to keep this body." she left the tree so that she could near him and she took one of the hanging earbuds to find out what he was listening to.

"You're here to ask me something." Matt lowered the hoody from his head.

"I love how connected we are Matt, it's like you can read my mind."

Her excitement left him on the defense. "We don't really like each other Kat."

She scorned him immediately. "Don't be a liar, everyone loves me and you're my person."

He huffed snatching his earbud back. "Don't use references from chick-flicks on me."

"It's not a movie, it's a show." she offered him the rest of her coffee. "And I was trying to be nice because I need you to do something for me."

He started laughing and shaking his head. "No… I'm not going to be a willing accomplice to whatever crazy thing you are planning to do today."

"I'm just going on a small drive out of town as a favor for a new friend."

"And you want me to go with you?"

"No." Katherine cutely smiled. "But if I'm not back tomorrow, it's because something went wrong and I need you to go search for me. You can do that, can't you?"

He scowled her with willpower. "You are all kinds of batshit crazy."

She pursed her lips and pulled her shoulders together. "Go back to running, Taylor Swift is waiting for you."

He had the earpiece back into his ear and beamed running away from her.

" _Hatters gonna hate, hate, hate…"_ she sang on her way to the car.

" _Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake it off…"_  Matt sang in a low voice as he carried on enjoying the beautiful morning.

* * *

"Thank you for everything, if it wasn't for your help and Caroline's, we wouldn't have anything ready on time." Eva admitted, preparing the ceremony for 4 dead witches turned out a bit overwhelming for her.

Bonnie had the last sage around the coffins ready, after an emotional goodbye from the families, the bodies now needed to be cleansed and prepared for the witch rite.  
Tradition stated that the families were allowed 3 days of grief before handing the bodies to the covens, then after a rite done by the Elder witches, the bodies were set on fire so that the spirits crossed over peacefully but their powers remained in the Ancestral line of New Orleans.

"I only followed Caroline's lead." Bonnie admitted naturally.

The girls chuckled a bit at the same time, Caroline took charge of the entire operation from the second she arrived, right up until the second she left.

"She's a bit aggressive when it comes to leadership…" Eva helped Bonnie close the doors of the mausoleum.

"She can easily plan a wedding or a funeral with the same amount of energy, just hand her something to plan and execute and she will have it done without a single hiccup."

"I know that she…" Eva wanted to speak out but she was cautious above all.

"Eva?" Bonnie encouraged her by smiling at her.

The girl with short black hair and round features smiled back. "I know that she doesn't want to be an Elder but if she ever chose to take that path, I would follow her."

Bonnie sealed their secret with a bigger smile, it filled her heart with pride when people talked about her friend like this.

She hadn't much to do today so she made a quick decision to stop by Mystic to have a drink, Matt wasn't working today but the bar was still one of her favorites.  
Bonnie was also in no mood to bump into the big crowds of tourists roaming the main streets so she used a few shortcuts to reach the street she wanted, after two very narrowed alleys she reached her destination.

However it was terribly cruel what she found upon her arrival, at first she tried to look away from the couple, the girl was lowering her dress so she knew she just missed the moment itself.  
But as the guy turned around, Bonnie's stomach was punched all the way to her back and she froze unable to reach for the back door.

The other girl rushed away flustered but Bonnie couldn't care less who she was, her eyes were stuck on him.

"This is entirely what it seems but I've always been a fan of explaining myself…" he neared her slowly.

Bonnie finally realized she had been staring at him with her mouth open and harshly breathed in. "So this is what you've done for the last two days… just like when I found you in that house with a private dancer on your lap." the entire movie was making her sick.

"Bonnie…" he motioned his hands forward.

"Don't you dare to touch me Kaleb!" she warned him angrily. "You just had sex with another woman." she hissed.

He stopped. "Darling…" he forced a smile. "Adulthood is complicated and judging by your violent knee buried below my waist the other night, I thought that you made clear how much you weren't interested."

"I hope that you catch a disease that will make you die in excruciating pain, Kaleb." she went inside the bar.

Bonnie headed straight to the counter and she really tried to overlook the way Vicki rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?" she asked without unfolding her arms.

"Anything strong enough to knock me out." Bonnie sat on a stool nauseated.

Vicki placed a big glass in front of her and filled it with straight Vodka. "Enjoy." she grumbled before going away to clean tables.

Bonnie was shaking as she took the glass but she had a real big sip from her drink nonetheless and she even managed not to cough as it burned everything down her throat.

Marcel was arriving with his crew and his attention drifted to the counter, easily he saw an opening because Bonnie was alone but his smile wasn't lasting as he sensed her troubled.

Bonnie glanced over as the big man arrived to her side. "Hi…" she barely said loudly.

"What left you so upset?" he tried to pull a small smile from her by flashing a magnificent smile on his side.

"Not what…" she looked at the back door. "Who."

Marcel turned to see who she was referring to and instantly he was serious, so the rumors were true and he was back.

"Do you mind if we go for a walk Marcel?" she pleaded him sweetly.

There was a long exchanging look with the other man before he faced Bonnie.

"I just don't feel like being alone and I don't want to call Caroline now, if I do that, I will fall apart." she added with glossy eyes.

He nodded, following her outside but still looking back to another hole in his ship, one he needed to patch as soon as he had the time.

* * *

Klaus dialed the number again, he was going to stop being nice about this very soon but before he launched on a hunt, the fox entered the library supercilious.

"Seriously?" she refused his call right in front of him. "You wanted to see me… I got the message the first 50 times you called."

"Where have you been for the last two days?" he harshly asked her.

Caroline cocked her eyebrow. "Did you miss me in your bed that much?"

"We have a deal Caroline." he wasn't in the mood for playful talks today. "One that affirms that you are obligated to find a way to break my curse, when you don't reply to my calls or show any interest in the terms of our deal, I am forced to believe that you are acting on bad faith."

Caroline decided to push him by smiling. "Our deal was that I would do this if and when you helped me find out what happened to my family and so far a picture is not that much to go on, I need a little more inspiration Klaus. If you want my help, you better have something by now that will make me really happy and cooperative."

He licked his lips so slowly that she felt the entire air being sucked inside the room but she still dared him without blinking, when he turned away from her, she eased her tense shoulders a bit.  
Klaus took something from the desk that she expected to come in the form of a file, not a car key and she glared at him, telling him exactly that.

"It's a beautiful day, let's go for a ride." he suggested and left without waiting for her answer.

* * *

"Thanks for this Marcel…" Bonnie was thankful, for not only the company but also that he was respectful of her minimal usage of speech during the walk.

"I would be a very good listener as well if you chose to rant about Kaleb."

"He's not worthy of my anger." Bonnie said it more like an outing of her inner thoughts than anything else.

"I don't know why he bothered coming back…" Marcel complained. "Considering how he chose to let you go when he disappeared without an explanation."

Bonnie smiled because of his jealousy. "He didn't come back for me but that doesn't mean that I'm ready to start another mess with a different man."

Marcel took advantage that they stopped near the building where her dorm was and he lightly traced her cheek with his finger. "There's so much that I could show you Bonnie, what you and the others see is only a peek into a wonderland that I wouldn't mind sharing with the right deity."

Bonnie blushed under his stare and a hand that cupped the side of her neck. "I grew up seeing you as the father of my best friend… it's a little weird that now you are looking at me like that."

"You became a very beautiful woman and I'm charmed by everything that defines you as a person, I understand the reluctance but my only request thus far was a simple dinner."

"There's nothing simple about what you expect from that dinner and I'm not ready for that yet Marcel." she astutely told him. "Not yet." she lastly added with a sweet look.

He restrained from pulling her back into his reach when she started to walk away, he knew that this wasn't their moment, still he turned away with a smile feeling that she was beginning to let him in.

"I can tell that your suave tactics were all learned from Nik." The blue-eyed warlock smirked. "And that wasn't a compliment by the way."

"Why are you here?"

He looked at the building behind Marcel. "I came for something that she's keeping but now after seeing your pathetic attempt to seduce her, I might just do it myself for the sake of showing you how it's done properly."

Marcel snarled flashing to hurt him but all that willpower was turned into pain the moment the warlock concentrated.

He forced Marcel to drop to his knees with only a hand standing between them. "But fun things for later old friend, let's get acquainted first, how have you been Marcellus?"

"I've been great… Kol." Marcel cringed out with a horrible pressure on his throat.

* * *

Caroline took her jacket off and tossed it to the back seat, crossing the city limits made her nervous. "I don't mean to sound petty but usually when I'm on a road trip with a stranger, I like to know where I'm going."

Klaus kept his eyes on the road with a smile. "How can you say that we are strangers, sweetheart? I know every line in your body by now."

"We had a one night stand."

He tilted his head to look at her.

"Two…" she gritted her teeth. "But except for the way that you like to cuddle, I don't know you Klaus."

"I'm whimsical." he whispered amused but she wasn't budging on her sour mood. "I see that you are still upset over the party."

"You didn't warn me about Tyler so I didn't have enough time to prepare for Marcel's wrath."

"He's more of a little lion adorably roaring."

Caroline chose to turn her head to the window, she didn't want to look at Klaus right now.

After a few silent seconds he broke first. "I was told that this symbol represents your coven."

Caroline found him holding a ring in the palm of his hand. "Yes… for some reason I just drew the symbol one day and I couldn't stop thinking about it so when we formed the coven everyone thought that it would be cool to use it." she took the ring to have a closer look at the Fluer-de-lis on top of a crown.

"Marcel said that I made him at my image but truthfully all he did was steal my idea."

She sighed. "I'm so tired of this kingdom crap and I've only met you for a week, before you arrived to New Orleans, Marcel was never this insufferable about being king and all that."

"Do you know about Mikael?"

Caroline closed her hand around the ring and nodded. "He was your father."

Klaus waved his finger. "No, he was the man who was married to my marvelous cheating mother and he spent centuries chasing his children. We all managed to surpass him a great deal of times until he caught Finn and his bride Sage. Mikael then sent warning to all corners of the Earth that he was going to kill them unless we gathered around a round table for one final dinner."

Caroline moved on her seat to better face him and listened rapt in every word that would come now.

"We set up the meeting in New Orleans, it was a perfectly safe place for everyone. It was a dusty new town with a pretty opera house and one of the rare places in the entire world where you couldn't perform magic."

Caroline's eyes went wide. "Really?"

He smiled. "You couldn't levitate a pin at the time."

"So what happened that it changed all that?"

"When I arrived with Elijah and the others, Mikael was waiting for us with a pile of ashes."

Caroline stroked her shivering arms. "He killed your brother anyway."

"The ashes belonged to Sage, Finn was being held in the Bayou by a hundred of the most powerful witches alive, they were all handpicked by my parent and came from everywhere in the world. They were kept inside of a cabin surrounded by wild nature."

Caroline jolted in her seat. "The old witch house in the Bayou!" she pointed at him.

He chuckled with her jitter excitement. "Craftily, Mikael found a way to trick nature, the witches were able to perform magic as long as they had something powerful to draw raw power from and worked as a tight coven."

"What did they use as a talisman?" she touched her lips with frown eyebrows and deep inquires. "A hundred witches working together would need a really big conduct."

"Our blood created a new species, love." he smugly reminded her. "And they had an Immortal constantly healing himself every time they took a gallon of blood."

"If they kept taking blood it's because they were trying to create something that would hold all that magic before it killed them."

"A weapon to kill us."

"You have all the cool stories." she regretted not having popcorn.

"By using Finn's blood, they forged a silver stake that could kill an Original."

"How did you get out of that one?" she glanced to the side, without realizing they were arriving to a beautiful driveway.

"Elijah was having an affair with one of the witches used to harvest Finn's power at the secretive cabin."

"Klaus Mikaelson is always a step ahead." she pointed at him again but with a playful smile this time. "And you guys really have a thing for witches."

Klaus lifted his eyebrows, she did have a point. "Celeste stole the weapon and gave it to Elijah but she failed to escape a fire that started in the cabin, bonded together by the powerful spell all the witches perished, carving with their tragic death the beginning of a new era in Louisiana."

"A hundred different bloodlines consecrated into the city's soil… we all practice because of that legacy…" she interrupted her daze to ask a pivotal question. "What happened to your brother in the end?"

"After I successfully tried the new extermination weapon on Mikael, Finn decided to end his life for he saw no reason to go on without his bride of many centuries."

"Oh, he was the romantic one."

Klaus gave her a single admonish look which made her giggle.

"But why are we here?" she looked at the house.

"The New Orleans battle caused a rift between us like nothing prior to that. For years we were all as close as a true family ever was but Elijah blamed me for Celeste's death, and then Rebekah blamed us all for not being able to stop Finn from his suicidal wish. After that night, we all went separate ways, occasionally running into each other, here and there."

"When you left, Marcel chose to stay here instead."

"He was tired of the nomadic life and decided to have roots somewhere. You see Caroline, he didn't steal the reign idea, he stole my family conception altogether. He recreated what he saw while he was growing up with us, the loyalty, the luxurious life and the extravagant parties. Elijah was quite fond of Marcel and enjoyed reading Shakespeare to him, Kol was a fan of live reenactments of Hamlet and I tried to kill Marcel when I caught him kissing Rebekah, it was all very melodramatic." Klaus made the cutest expression ever.

Caroline laughed with ease. "Whenever we fight, I always accuse him of being dramatic."

"He stole quite the number of things Caroline but he didn't inherit my ability to think ahead. Marcel is sloppy because his arrogance gets in the way of how brilliant he could be. I easily tracked that symbol back to a person." Klaus pointed at the ring.

"Who lives here Nik?" she asked him with a tight chest.

"Tessa, an Ancestral Elder witch exiled from her home."

Caroline instantly frowned. "No… that's not… possible." she mumbled as he left the car and quickly went around to her door. "There are only two alive Elder's, that's Sophie and her sister." Caroline insisted.

"And me." A beautiful tall girl with almond eyes and long dark-brown hair said while coming down from the stairs of her porch.

Caroline had the strangest feeling when she looked at the woman. "Do I know you?"

"You were very little when I left the Governor's house." Tessa replied.

Caroline looked at Klaus confused.

"We all like the witches." he reminded her of her own words.

"Why don't I remember you?" Caroline looked at Tessa again.

"But you remember what we used to draw together…"

Caroline opened her hand staring at the ring, that foggiest image came to her mind and she felt dizzy, so dizzy that she lost her balance, before she fell Klaus caught her in his arms and Tessa came forward cradling her face.

"Remember Caroline." she whispered breaking the spell that was holding her memories at bay.

Caroline dropped her head back losing consciousness and Klaus scooped her legs so he could hold her properly, he also looked at Tessa gravely.

"Don't worry, she will be all right." Tessa headed to her house. "Just bring her inside."

A glimmer of concern crossed his features as he carried Caroline to the house.

* * *

He was crouching in front of Marcel with a sadistic smile, he was having a twisted pleasure by keeping him locked under his power.

"I'm going to hurt you badly as soon as you let me go Kol." Marcel assured him.

"It's Kaleb!" he parted his arms exasperated with the slip. "At least for the time being."

Marcel was on his knees consumed by the invisible fire that Kol was causing inside of him. "We agreed that you wouldn't come here, no matter what." Marcel hissed.

Kol lifted a finger in the air and winked at Marcel. "Never trust an Original to keep his word."

A mouthful of air came out when Kol released him from the pain and Marcel snarled viciously angry. "Your taste for the weird hasn't changed, you still enjoy inflicting pain for vain satisfaction."

"I loved being a vampire, by God, it was terrific but bloody hell, having these new tricks is like being open to every possibility." he spotted a girl across the field and he snapped his fingers just to see her skirt lift.

Marcel rolled his eyes face to face with the juvenile laughter. "You're still the same kid that refuses to grow up, no matter in what body you are stuck."

"Speaking of which…" Kol squinted. "Why did you send me  _this_?" he held his hand in front of his chest.

Marcel sat down on the ground breathing the aftermath of the pain. "When you called me for help, you forgot to specify what your preferences were."

"I called you suspecting that they were going to kill me after I was caught having so much fun, when you suggested placing me momentarily in another body, I didn't have time to think about it. I was being crispy Kol in one side of the planet and then waking up as baby Kaleb on some house in Baton Rouge."

"You needed a body and I needed Kaleb out of here so I sent him on an errand, the witch waiting for him did the rest…"

Kol deliciously smiled. "I think he knew he was being sent to the abattoir because he managed to lock his memories. I had a strenuous time just digging for the names of the ones closer to him."

Marcel apprehensively prepared his next question. "And his history with Bonnie?"

"Died with the poor fella." Kol stood up placing some really cool shades on. "And it's been fun having blue eyes but I miss the old charming carcass, so I need to get my old body back and be restored to greatness."

"Klaus has your body… I think."

Kol shrugged. "That's up to you to find out."

Marcel slowly stood eyeing him like he was insane. "I'm not your slave Kol, I'm sired to the other peafowl."

"I'm asking you nicely Marcel." he said with a singing voice.

Marcel chuckled with a nod. "You wanted a favor and in exchange I asked you for the Hope diamond, which you delivered but so did I. One body swapping for the lost diamond, done and done." he locked his hands together representing the end of this talk.

Kol lost the smile and tucked the folded sleeves of his baby-blue buttoned up shirt. "I want my body back but I don't want Klaus to find out that I'm still alive, I suspect he might be a tad resentful that there's now an unnecessary curse on him since you were faster to answer my rescue plea, therefore I'm giving you the complex mission of snatching back my old essence from him."

It was absolutely creepy for Marvel that although Kol was in a different body, the features still let out this inhuman smile as he carried on.

"Or I will find my way to that gorgeous girl upstairs and I will cut her into a million glorious pieces and leave them scattered on your mattress." he was flawlessly cold as he took a step closer to Marcel. "Try to see past the baby features that women love so much and remember what I'm capable of."

Marcel tensed his jaw and if his heart was still alive, it would be pounding in his chest as Kol left him with the gruesome threat.

* * *

Klaus divided his attention between Tessa dropping black salt on top of a dream catcher and Caroline lying on the sofa out cold for the moment. "How long will this last?" he came around to the witch in charge of Caroline's awareness.

"It depends on how much she will fight me." While waiting for the images to appear in the charm, Tessa looked at Klaus inquisitive about the ill at ease attitude. "I know how much she means to Marcel but I wasn't expecting this from you, not from the pillow talk that I had with Marcel."

"What's truly disturbing is that Marcel would speak of me when he was in bed with you but fear not, my reputation will make me justice if you end up hurting Caroline in any way."

"She is important to you?"

Without hesitation Klaus grabbed a small knife lying on the table and buried it in Tessa's hand, she screamed with her hand pinned to the table but Klaus cupped her chin ruthlessly making her look at him. "Shiuu.." he shushed her screams with a creepy squint. "The next one goes straight in that prying heart of yours."

She thought about giving him pain but Caroline moaned in the sofa and the two of them looked at the charm, when the first images cleared, Klaus let go of Tessa.

"She's starting to access her hidden memories." Tessa pulled the knife out of her hand with a restrained yell.

* * *

_The little blonde girl ran bare feet to the bigger tent, she couldn't sleep and she wanted to be with her parents instead of being alone in the small tent but before she went inside, she stopped to hear if they were awake._   
_She caught a fraction of a talk and hid among the big flowing pieces that made the entrance of the tent, they were arguing and now she was scared to go any further, carefully she peeked inside wondering why mommy and daddy were fighting._

_"I know how upset you are Elisabeth but pacing back and forth won't solve anything, it's only making me anxious."_

_The woman with a long blonde braid faced him on the verge of a breakdown. "I'm not worried, I'm terrified of what might happen to our daughter."_

_William sighed and gently took her arms. "She will be safe."  
_   
_Elisabeth broke into soft tears. "That's what you said when you convinced me to leave everything behind… and now here I am, hiding among the people and living with them but still petrified of what might happen if they find out who we are…"_

_"I know that it was a lot to ask, to leave the comfort of a court for what we have now…"_

_Elisabeth bravely smiled. "You are my king and I will follow you anywhere."_

_"As I would do for you my queen and I will offer the safety of my body against those who dare to try to harm you or our daughter."_

_"She's special William, so special that they are hunting us down just to take her away from us… and they are getting closer." she whispered._

_He cleaned her tears with love. "We will not let them get her, everyone thinks that I'm the coward ruler that fled with my family, no one in the clan suspects who we truly are and they all love her so much." he smiled enchanted with his little girl._

_"She resembles me." Elisabeth conceitedly teased him._

_William leaned over to kiss her, after a few seconds they broke away because of the incessant giggles that they heard from the entrance._

_"Princess, is that you?" he asked already smiling hugely._

_"I couldn't sleep…" she came inside in her big white gown and adorable begging blue eyes. "Can I stay here until I do?"_

_He opened his arms urging her to come closer and she cutely raced to him, instantly locking her arms around his neck when he picked her up, she looked at her mother with a small smile._

_"Why are you crying mommy?"_

_"Because I love you so much that it hurts my heart." Elisabeth kissed her daughter's forehead with love and then laced her arms around her husband and their daughter. "I love you both so much."_

* * *

Caroline's head was spinning out of control but she forced her eyelids to move and the first thing she saw was a pair of blue beauties that she was getting used to. "What did you do to me?" she grumbled upset.

Klaus smiled while brushing her temple and then her cheek. "Sometimes the blunt approach is the most efficient one."

She moved her eyes to the woman now sitting next to her on the sofa. "I made you some tea."

Caroline sat up with a cautious glare. "I don't think I want to accept anything from someone who made me blackout."

"I had to work my way around the spell used to erase recollections from your mind." Tessa rested the mug on the small coffee table. "Do you know who I am now Caroline?"

"You were living with Marcel when he brought me to New Orleans."

Tessa nodded. "I was his companion until the day I started questioning his actions, you hadn't been with us for a year when I left."

Caroline was shaking, the descriptions of things that were heavily hidden inside of her were beginning to surface in a hasty speed, she accepted his jacket and it was comforting that he sat next to her as well.

"I imagine you have a thousand questions." Tessa looked willing to answer all of them.

"Did Marcel kill my parents?" Caroline strongly asked.

"Sadly, that's the one question that I can't answer." Tessa rested her wounded hand on her lap. "When Marcel found out about this magical child whose power was something unforeseen, he became obsessed with finding you. When he came back home with a beautiful little blonde angel, I asked him the same question and he only said that he was meant to find you."

Caroline brought the lapels of Klaus' jacket closer. "I had a flash of my parents when they were alive but I still can't remember what happened when Marcel found me."

"You need to give it time, your mind needs to get used to the door we just opened." Tessa reached out for Caroline's hand but the blonde reacted by standing up and going outside.

Caroline stopped near the car, pacing in the driveway like someone lost.

"I saw the same memory sequence that you saw." Klaus tried giving her something that she could use as a connection. "Sadly there was no sound on this side." he eased the moment as well.

Caroline smiled a little as she handed him his jacket back, she took hers from inside the car and gathered her thoughts in the process. "I think my parents were royals among the Romani and they gave up their status to live with a simple clan as a normal family, just to keep me safe."

"What exactly are you able to do Caroline?" Klaus wasn't just curious now, immeasurable lengths to keep her protected meant that she was important for a reason.

Tessa joined them outside and when Caroline looked at her, she nodded with warmth. "I know that your world just suffered a big quake but if you can trust anyone, that's us. Because we want to help you find out the truth."

Caroline slowly took Tessa's wounded hand and unwrapped the towel around the bloodied injury, she had a deep breath focusing on her magic, then as the blood started drying, the cut closed and she looked at Klaus. "I'm a healer."

* * *

Kol callously went through the personal items inside of another drawer, there wasn't anything remotely interesting and he huffed bored.  
There wasn't a single clue that he could use among the stack of pictures either, they were all taken with Bonnie and that wasn't helpful at all.

He found the same about the dull diary of course. "How hard is it to find something that I can actually use on  _you_  without harming  _me?_ " he asked the mirror.

"When did you get back?"

He looked up at the man standing by the door with a beer bottle in one hand and looking as dirty as he smelled. "Since you reek of interest… a couple of days ago."

"I'm going to need money for the rent."

"It's highly improbable that you will get it from me." Kol liked what he found next, Kaleb's Grimoire was always an asset to consider.

"Hey listen up, you little punk, if you want to sleep here, you better bring me some money." The man started shouting but he wasn't getting any answers so he rushed to take the kid's shoulder and beat some sense into him. "Did you forget all about your good manners while you were away Kaleb?"

Kol turned around clasping the man's neck and sending him slowly to his knees, the spell consisted simply of stopping the blood from reaching his heart and then air from going to the lungs, two simple things that were halted and incapacitated to have a continuous flow until the man fell to the side dead.

"Good talk." Kol simply stepped over the corpse on his way out of the house with the Grimoire.

* * *

Klaus parked the car in his driveway with the same silence he had driven back home, Caroline hadn't said a word since they left Tessa's house and she didn't look ready to start talking now.

He went around to her door and held it for her. "Come inside." he offered his hand for her to take.

She didn't act with rush but she accepted his offer, as they walked down the hallway to his bedroom Caroline tried to know why he hadn't said anything about the news.

"Are you speechless because I'm a freak or…" she quietly shook her head.

Klaus stopped a few doors before his bedroom and opened that door for them. "Ansel was my real father." he turned the lights on.

Caroline's chin fell astounded as she stepped inside of a room full of books, names scribbled on boards scattered around, she neared the walls with old passages stuck to them, pictures of old symbols carved into cave walls and drawings of wolves and the moon.

"And this is everything that I've managed to find about him so far." Klaus explained.

She easily found the family tree he scribbled using the Old Norse dialect on a white board, it had as much of fascinating as it had of sad because on one side was the huge Mikaelson clan while on the other was only his name written under Esther and Ansel. "It feels lonely to be you." she touched his name in original Viking.

Klaus rearranged a few books on the huge table. "There's not much to latch on to."

"What do you know about him?" she looked for Klaus' eyes.

Klaus met her eyes pleading for trust. "My mother fell in love with the young werewolf leader of our village and pushed by Mikael's continuous shun, she began an affair with Ansel which resulted in a pregnancy. Fearing Mikael's reaction to those volatile news, she reconciled with him and kept everything a secret until I killed a human and triggered my werewolf side exposing the infidel cabal."

Caroline's Norse wasn't perfect but she was deciphering the old letter framed in a casing with somewhat easiness. "Mikael murdered him and his pack overtaken by rage." It was a passage from someone's memories.

"He missed a baby that Ansel hid in the woods before Mikael entered their village bloodthirsty." Klaus showed Caroline a book with a tale about shape shifters in the old world.

"That means that you have family left from the side of your real father." she jolted her wide eyes back to him.

"Supposedly." he rested his back against the table and crossed his arms. "Although I haven't found anything tangible."

"Don't be discouraged." she begged him sweetly. "This is a part of you that you are looking for, a void that you can't explain and I know how much that fire is burning inside of you to find out everything."

"Elijah and the others see it as being immensely ungrateful about the way they've embraced me into the family."

"It's not the same and if there's anyone who understands that well, it's me." she smiled but her head was hurting and she was tired so it was all done with a small rubbing of the back of her neck.

Smoothly he picked her up in his arms and headed for his bedroom, Caroline enjoyed the moment with a bigger smile and she loved how be laid in bed with her.

"As a healer, shouldn't you be healing all that weariness away by now?" Klaus stroked her neck as they rested on their sides facing each other.

"It's a gift that I can only use on others…" she whispered taking the beads of his necklace with a lazy touch. "Magic is whimsical as well."

Klaus chuckled with a heavy motion of his chest. "And I thought that I was unique in the world."

"You are not alone." she snuggled closer to him.

Klaus outlined her face before closing the small gap between them for a kiss, tenderly he held her upper lip between his, then he kissed her bottom lip with a little more pressure.  
Caroline caressed his neck pressing his lips in return, a heated match that lasted for a few other sweet kisses until their need for something more took over.

When she parted her lips, she anticipated the deep kiss but the way he slowly invaded her mouth with his skillful tongue left her wheezing and she strongly covered his mouth with her hand before he kissed her again like that. "We are not going to have sex tonight." she slowly lowered her hand from his lips.

"Suddenly the domineering attitude makes all the sense, Princess." he lowered his chin with a fiery stare.

"Shut up." she narrowed her eyes to a minimal.

Klaus smirked stealing another kiss from her precious lips.

She sighed. "I don't know how I'm going to face Marcel tomorrow and I need to start working on your counter-spell as well. Plus, I have to go to cemetery and I haven't even thought about what I'm going to wear..." she pouted. "And my disappearing coven member has returned but thinks it's cute to ignore all of us."

"Try to sleep for now, sweetheart." he soothed her with a low voice.

She nodded and tried to bring herself closer to him. "I'm cold…"

Klaus circled his arms around her, warming her with his arms but also creating this solid shield around her that made her sleep peacefully.

* * *

Maybe the high-heeled boots were not a good idea, it was drizzling today and Caroline felt the ground a bit unstable when she quickened her small race to the Pub, she overslept at Klaus' and hardly had time to go home and get ready for the ritual.  
She pushed the front door of Matt's working place hoping that the annoying weather hadn't ruined her cascade curls when a different vision managed to top her current irritation.

Kol lowered the drink from his lips when the blonde with the black stylish dress strutted determined in his direction, she was pushing the sleeves of her blazer up and looked every bit ready to murder him.

"For how long are you staying, this time around? A week? How long do you need us to get attached again before you disappear on us?" she drilled him angrily.

"Which question do you want me to answer first?" he postponed the savoring of his drink defying her, obviously she wasn't informed of his latest feats.

"Please fight this back because I don't want you to make it easier on me." Caroline pressed her lips hard and constricted her eyes at him but Matt blocked her spell by gently taking her shoulders and turning her in a different direction.

"Let it go Care, he's not worth it. Not today." Matt glared at the smirking man.

"I just want to hurt him a little bit…" Caroline hissed trying to look back. "Like turn him into stone or something."

"Easy there  _Medusa_ …" Matt kept on gently guiding her away from Kaleb.

"He's sitting there Matt having a drink, like nothing happened." she caught a glimpse at the bar again.

"We obviously missed him more than he missed us." Matt pulled a chair for Caroline. "And we need a coven meeting soon but it's not a good idea to start a public fight today because every eye will be on the witches today." he sat down trying to make a decent knot on his tie.

Caroline shook her head in slowness and judging. "Did you see that? He didn't even blink when Bonnie arrived."

The girl did her best to ignore him at the bar as well and smiled at her friends choosing to care only about them. "Hey everyone."

"Hey Bon." Matt was still doing too many loops with his tie.

"Hey…" Caroline was more endearing and smiled sweetly at her friend.

"I'm ok." Bonnie assured very sure of herself and straightening the cute dress that she was wearing.

It was different from Caroline's classic lace covered-chest look and she was wearing ballerina shoes which gave her this innocent appearance, yet they were all true to themselves in their own way.  
However none of them more than Katherine.

Matt slowed down his clumsy fight with the tie when she walked inside the Pub, Katherine was wearing needle high heels and a black tight short dress that had small sleeves and very little fabric around a chest that was propped by a wide belt made of satin around her tiny waist.

"It's a funeral Katherine." Matt reminded her.

"And in respect, I'm wearing my best black outfit." she replied.

"The funeral is to say goodbye to the dead, not to wake them up." Caroline smiled.

Katherine chuckled. "I adore you."

Caroline winked at her.

"I'm going to get us a drink." Katherine smoldered her way to the counter.

"Is it bad if I leave the tie behind? It's getting on my nerves." Matt yanked the thing from around his neck.

"I'll help you with it." Bonnie took the tie and easily had a knot going before he could tell how she did it.

"After all, you should look your best…" Katherine returned with shot glasses and a bottle of Whiskey.

"Oh right." Caroline picked up on the tease at once.

Matt rolled his eyes. "Please don't start with that again."

Bonnie was trying to stay immune but she had a small smile nonetheless. "Davina will be there."

"And she will be sighing and looking at Matty like he is made of cotton candy." Katherine filled the glasses.

"She's going to blush and it's going to be so cute." Caroline reached out to take a glass.

"Every last one of you is an evil, evil being." Matt took his glass.

"I think it's adorable that the Fairy has a crush on you." Caroline smiled at him.

"Me too but I forbid you to even think about returning it in any way." Katherine told him.

"That's not caution Kat, that's ruling my romantic life and I don't remember doing that to you." Matt scolded her.

"You have really bad karma when it comes to dating situations." she mused.

He lowered his eyes sulking. "Just because I dated the occasional psychotic murder it doesn't mean that I have a curse… it's actually very hard choosing someone normal when our home is New Orleans."

"I completely agree on that one." Bonnie grabbed her glass.

"Here's to bad dates and boyfriends, no one should be stuck with any of them." Katherine made the toast.

Everyone on the table joined glasses with her.

"One more for the road?" Katherine waved the bottle.

They had another shot slamming the glass on the table once they were done with it and all left the Pub at the same time, at least that was the plan but Bonnie lingered a bit behind to question her former boyfriend.

"You're not going to Monique's funeral?" she tried not to look straight at him while forming the question.

He actually looked surprised by the inquiry. "No… memorial services make me cheerless."

Bonnie toyed with the satin bow around her waist. "I haven't told the others about yesterday and I really want to keep this between us, I'd like to keep that last shred of dignity, if that's ok with you."

He smiled holding his drink for a lazy sip. "I left something in your possession that belongs to me, give it back to me and my small indiscretion will remain private."

"I'll think about it." Bonnie turned her back on him crassly.

"I want my key back Bonnie." he snapped.

She turned her head with a smile. "Forget about my appeal, I'll tell them today that my boyfriend didn't bother to break up with me first, before he started humping some girl in the back alley. Oh, and about the key, I don't have it anymore, I threw it in the swamp so..." she shrugged.

He laughed. "I like your humor."

Her smile turned sad. "Who are you Kaleb?"

With a sigh he left the drink behind and neared her, he gently brushed her cheek. "Love… my feelings changed a bit while I was away which I'm sure it's hard to accept but there needs to be progress in order to have growth. I left that key with you for a reason, I needed it to be kept safe, now I'm ready to take it with me on my way out of New Orleans and by doing so I'm giving you a wonderful chance to mature." he clarified.

Bonnie nodded with her eyes on his. "The others kept saying that I should move on, that after months without news it was obvious you didn't want anything to do with me anymore and I kept holding on because I didn't want to think that you left because of me. I'm here now staring at you and I don't feel a single thing coming from you so I know now that it wasn't me, it's you. You are the biggest jerk I've ever known and I don't know why I haven't seen it before. Take your hand off me and leave town whenever you want to but you're going without that key because there's no way in hell that I'm giving it back to your cheating self. How's that for mature?"

He leaned his head to the side with a smile that reached his eyes. "I will make you give me that key back."

"You didn't convince me to have sex with you while we were together, do you by any chance believe that you can persuade me to give you something as powerful as the Ancestor?" she chuckled. "Did you develop amnesia while you were away as well?"

He clasped his lips a tad impressed. "I wasn't expecting the fire but I surely accept the challenge now darling."

She turned away sickened, she couldn't even recognize the energy coming from him anymore but on his end Kol was going back to his drink and aiming at a seemingly easy plan, he only had to sway her.

* * *

"You look really hot Matt." Katherine took his arm. "Are you trying to tempt the dead as well?"

"I thought that the shirt and the tie would be appropriate for the occasion and I didn't want to be on Caroline's bad side of fashion police." Matt stopped in front of the main gate. "How was the… thing?"

Katherine fixed the black pearls around her neck. "I met my kindred soul."

He frowned deeply lost. "I don't want to know."

She padded his cheek with a sigh. "Good choice big boy."

They turned to the mausoleum hating that there wasn't a way to speed things along.

"Let's pray for a sweet and quick burn." Katherine grunted.

A pretty brunette greeted her at the door. "This is why we invite all the covens to gather Katherine, so that we can all pay homage to the dead and face the future stronger than before."

Katherine tightened her hold around Matt's arm, she really didn't like Sophie, that half-smile of hers always left her perturbed. "And I thought that it was to exchange tattoo ideas."

Sophie laughed without much will. "Don't make me turn you into a life-size voodoo doll."

Before Katherine spat out a cutting comeback, Matt smiled and went inside taking her with him.

Sophie directed her dim smile to Caroline as she arrived with Bonnie. "There's one of you missing."

"The ones that matter are all here." Caroline tried not to stop.

"A troubled coven is a broken coven Caroline, you need to fix this." Sophie didn't let her go far.

Caroline didn't cross the doorstep but she wasn't staying for long outside either. "And we will deal with it amongst ourselves."

"I look forward to know how things progress." Sophie nodded giving permission for the blonde to go inside.

* * *

Tyler nailed another piece of wood to the window, it wasn't a miraculous solution but it would keep the cold outside tonight, as he predicted the house was a wreck and he had a lot of work ahead of him.

"This mansion has seen better glorious days, for sure." Klaus left his opinion by the door.

Tyler smiled hammering another nail into the wood. "It's been abandoned for a year now, the few things that weren't stolen are either broken or nesting a bunch of crawling little creatures inside."

"No sentimental value justifies sleeping in such meager conditions." Klaus scanned the place with his eyes.

"Do you want to have a closer look?" Tyler found his expression funny.

"There's no need to invite me in." Klaus refused to set foot inside the decaying house but he needed to talk to Tyler nonetheless. "Grant me a few minutes outside."

Tyler left the hammer and went with Klaus curious about the visit.

The property around the house was enjoyable and Klaus rather look at that than a bunch of spiders spying from every corner. "I have a few spare rooms at my house or the spare vampire workers, whatever you need the most."

Tyler was definitely struck with the direct approach. "What are you expecting from me Klaus?"

"I don't have many friends." Klaus simply smiled.

"So it's not just my support that you are trying to buy?"

They stopped by what must have been a beautiful garden once.

"I asked around about you."

"Why are you investigating me? Is this some weird way to get to Caroline?"

"You were adopted and shortly after triggering your werewolf side, your fake parents left you. This house and property were inherited by you after the former leader of the werewolves in New Orleans was killed by Marcel in a very public and theatrical trial."

"There was a bar brawl and Jackson killed a vampire that was really close to Marcel, after he sentenced Jackson to death, he killed 20 vampires before they managed to decapitate him."

"But you were smarter than he was, you tried to be friendly with Marcel but still there was a problem standing in the way of armistice."

Tyler crossed his arms stoically. "I'm going to tell you the same I told Marcel, I love Caroline and I will always love her. She was there when I first shifted and she will always be a part of my life and even if it's not a romantic love anymore, it's still love to me."

"I would be a fool to get in the middle of that." Klaus' words were partnered by a sly smile.

Tyler had a deep breath. "I have a house to fix, when you feel ready to tell me what you really want from me, I'll be here Klaus." he went back to the house.

Klaus made a call to Josh, ordering that he arranged for a unit to help Tyler with the house.

* * *

"We are gathered before the great spirits that protect this city and the covens in it." Jane-Anne raised her arms. "Allow us to keep the bloodlines flowing by accepting the purification of these four souls."

Accompanying her words, Sophie set fire to the coffins.  
The moment wasn't new for Caroline because she had witnessed other rites but after learning the history behind the ritual, it all fell on Caroline differently today.

"Are you ok?" Bonnie whispered next to her.

"Yeah… I'm just going to get some air." Caroline went outside under Sophie's heavy judging.

Perhaps she was too rushed because Marcel was waiting for her in a black suit and tie.

"You haven't answered any of my calls." he started with a quiet voice. "I'm used to the whims Caroline but this is not the time to be blemish."

After a good sequence of seconds she walked by him and would have strutted out of the cemetery, hadn't he appeared in front of her. "I don't want to talk to you." she warned him.

"You don't have a choice." he was austere.

"Who is Tessa?" she went for the devious route first.

It was a name Marcel hadn't listen in years. "She was more than a friend."

"She was your girlfriend and I lived with her but somehow I had no memory of her until yesterday."

"She was my lover but when things ended and she decided to leave, you were so attached to her that fearing how much you would miss her, Tessa performed a forgetting spell. I was convinced that I would never hear that name again so I didn't see a problem there."

"You allowed someone to mess with my mind but you didn't see a problem there?" she increasingly grew livid.

"I'm a vampire, I do atrocious things. I kill, I torture and most of the time I enjoy myself so much that I think about terrible things that I would like to do to people but I try to think of how much that intensity can be turned into love." Marcel looked at her bewildered. "There's no hidden agenda here Caroline, I love you like you were forged from my own blood and you know that no matter how heated my words come out there's nothing I wouldn't do for you, or forgive from you."

"I want to know what happened to my real parents." Caroline hoped for a straight answer. "Will you help me?"

"You will only get hurt."

"I'm a big girl Marcel, it's my choice if I want to get hurt or not and I'm going to look for the truth."

"Has Klaus offered to help you?"

She smiled at Marcel with a clenched heart. "You should wear a suit more often, it looks good on you."

Marcel clenched his teeth staying behind in the cemetery. "I'm mourning for Diego, I think that Klaus sired him to kill himself."

Caroline turned to Marcel. "Good, he tried to force himself on me once when you were out of town."

"What... why haven't you told me this? I would have killed him myself."

"You saw what you wanted to see Marcel, this family was never picture perfect as you sell to everyone and there's a reason I don't live in your house and why none of you were invited into my home." she turned away leaving him gutted.

* * *

Klaus sat on the sofa with his drink and a big satisfied grin as she walked in.

"Someone is happy that I answered his call this time..." Caroline lost the jacket and fixed a drink like she was more than a guest on his house.

"You always leave me in high spirits love." he stretched his arm on the sofa. "How was the funeral?"

Caroline took her shoes off and was every bit searing as she walked straight to him, he slightly squinted when she sat on his lap, pulling her short dress up so that she could properly straddle him.

"It's a bit like a Viking funeral actually, we set fire to the bodies hoping that the God's will accept their souls into whatever heaven they believed in."

He gulped down as one of her hands made way under his shirt, paving his ribcage. "I'm highly turned on by death myself."

Caroline giggled. "Don't be silly, I'm just trying to have some work done today, after all there's this deal that we have going on."

"I'm excited for your work tactics." he smirked as she moved her hand to his broad back, pulling his shirt up and then over his neck.

She dropped the Henley on the floor next to her and finished her drink, then Caroline took the ice left inside the glass and started making a pentagram on top of his heart, the harsh contact with the cold made his skin shiver and Klaus had a small hiss that propelled her to look at him.

"That's one nasty curse that they cast on you." she said when a red mark surfaced on his skin.

Klaus looked at a letter under a perfect pentagram and it wasn't often that he felt as clueless as he was now. "What are we going to do about that outrageous thing on my exquisite complexion?"

Caroline had drifted her eyes to the rest of his chest and she artfully smirked. "I need time to think about it…"

Klaus recognized the playful tone and tossed his glass over his shoulder. "Can I assist in anything?"

Caroline traced a line from his throat all the way to his belt. "Sure…"

Klaus caressed her legs, slowly reaching her ass while she opened his belt.  
Caroline locked her lips with his for a kiss that was controlled by her, she owned the kiss, thrusting her tongue against his but always effectively escaping his dominant tongue, she teased him by seemingly appear close enough but always retrieving to her mouth.

When he followed her, she pushed his tongue back to his mouth and during that push and pull, she sank her teeth into his lower lip, pulling at it playfully.

"Just to be sure…" Klaus was mystified with how fast she made him hard. "Are we having sex?"

Caroline moaned with a purr as she felt him ready under her. "Oh yes, I want you inside of me, right here on this couch and in every single possible way."

Klaus hungrily took her lips and ripped the back of her dress apart, exposing a smooth skin that he caressed while kissing her.  
Caroline was paving his shoulders, trembling in desire just thinking of how those muscles felt under her touch when they had sex and when his lips moved to her neck she dropped her head back so that he could kiss her throat.

"Nik…" she arched her back a little so that she could grind against him with her soaking panties.

 _"Nik?"_ Another female voice stridently came from the hallway.

Caroline breathlessly looked at him, he was confused as well, his curls were all messed up by her hands and he was harshly breathing, waiting to find out if the voice was real.

_"Nik? Where are you, you wanker?"_

Caroline got scared when Klaus closed his eyes, the voice was not welcomed and she scarcely had time to leave his lap and keep the front of her dress secure around her chest before another blonde burst into the library.

She was tall and had pretty long hair, she was also wearing a flawless black pearls bracelet that caught Caroline's attention as she pointed viciously at Klaus.

"What have you done to Elijah?"

Caroline glanced over to Klaus. "Fuming spouse that I wasn't aware?" she cautiously whispered between teeth.

Klaus pushed the shirt down his neck with a grimace. "Caroline…" he moved his hand towards the other blonde. "Meet my sister, Rebekah."

Caroline waved at the girl with an awkward smile. "Awesome."

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Shake it off –  _Taylor Swift_

Baby don't lie -  _Gwen Stefani_

The perfect life - _Moby with Wayne Coyne_

You can't teach an old dog new tricks -  _Seasick Steve_

Don't let me down _-_ _The Beatles_

Geronimo -  _Sheppard_

Take me to church –  _Hozier_


	6. Lines of blood

"You're a hybrid for Christ sake… you have like super sensitive senses and you can hear someone whispering in the next town…" Caroline started a monumental fight with her blazer along with the torn apart dress that she was trying to put back together. "… but you couldn't hear your sister galloping to the place where we were having sex?" she grabbed her shoes with a hiss. "For real Klaus? A little warning would have been really good." she snapped with a furious whisper.

"I will deal with Rebekah quickly, it always pans out to a few elaborate insults added to a few flying objects, there's really no need for you to leave."

Caroline now battled with her shoes. "Your sister saw my underwear before she saw my face, the last thing on my mind is a sleepover." she launched a few locks away from her face with a huff and pressed her chest to keep the dress in place.

Klaus lowered his chin the tiniest bit, he was defiantly smiling enamored with the adorable presentation. "Your dress disagrees."

"Why was Rebekah asking about your brother Elijah, do you know where he is?" she buttoned up her blazer to ensure her dignity was disguised.

"Elijah is currently resting inside of a wooden box, desiccated and with a dagger in his heart." Klaus informed her with this offhand voice.

"Are you keeping him in here?" in contradiction her voice was timid.

"It would be reckless to abandon his coffin just anywhere." Klaus cunningly smiled.

Caroline steered her finger towards him and closed her eyes.

Amused, Klaus kept his eyes on her beautiful face. "Sweetheart?"

Like she had been in touch with some serious inner self-healing chanting, she smiled opening her eyes. "You keep your brother around in a coffin?" her eyes did this cute dance of widening more than necessary.

"He's mentally ill." Klaus grinned. "He actually has this notion that he's better than I am." he threw his hand in the air. "It's all very eerie if you must know."

Caroline tugged her blazer and had this small shake of her head so that her hair would naturally fall back into those majestic curls of hers. "All I know is that we're having sex in a house where you keep your brother in a coffin like he's part of the vintage decoration and that your sister just caught me straddling you while I was half-naked. That's not the impression I wanted to make."

Conniving in his smile and with a sparkle that brought life to his ocean-like eyes, Klaus didn't hold back on the comment. "You don't have to be friendly with my sister to impress me."

Caroline's tongue betrayed her, it sprinted right across her lower lip before she spoke. "I'm not sure that's what I was trying to say…"

It was hard to explain with precision the way Klaus moved when he was assured of something, the amount of confidence was poorly misjudged by many but it wasn't the cocky way he held himself when he walked that truly impressed, it was the infinite wisdom behind it all.  
There was very little that someone could do or say to cause him surprise or even to a greater much more implausible way, shock.

He softly pulled her into his arms. "We targeted each other among a sea of people Caroline, regardless of what happens around us, the odds and circumstances remain the same. We want to be with one another despite all the noise erupting on the surrounds and I've yet to be proven why we shouldn't be together."

She closed her eyes when he kissed her, the way it heated her lips rushed to the rest of her body but she broke away from his lips unable to deal with the way it differed from the other kisses they had so far between them.

Nervously she smiled at him. "Great speech but my dress is shredded all the way to my butt and the air is making me cold."

Klaus laughed, he also knew she was preparing to leave.

She leaned over for one final kiss that preferred his lower lip. "But really great speech, Nik." she lost the nervousness now that she smiled at him again.

And as she hauled away from him Caroline allowed his hand to come down her arm and take her hand, the sweet moment was short but it left both in a good mood.

Hers would surely last all the way home but his was cut too soon as Rebekah came back into the room, there was a dagger in her hand that she made sure he saw.

"Keep it." Klaus crossed his arms. "And keep the suit carter about to make us company."

Elijah crossed the threshold irritated. "I will admonish you for your actions in ways that you can't even spell."

Klaus lifted his eyebrow with perfect timing. "It required your baby sister to rescue you, I'm not going to take you for sober."

Elijah was checking himself in the mirror. "I still look and feel dead so my reply will be shared with you later."

Klaus rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't bother with that, there is only so much Nik can hear without losing his temper and opening dagger season on all of his siblings." Rebekah coldly said.

"There aren't that many left." Klaus sourly said.

"Before we plunge into that…" Elijah commanded Klaus' attention. "There was something priceless in my possession before I met the other side of a dagger and Rebekah informed that the important item appears to be missing."

"I stole it." Klaus naturally explained the charade.

Elijah clenched his jaw with a menacing look. "Where is it?"

Klaus showed a smirk. "Finders, keepers."

"It's not yours to keep."

"Poppycock." Klaus sneered childishly.

Elijah blurred in his supernatural speed and tried to hit Klaus on the face with a fist but Rebekah stepped in on time.

"Calm down Elijah, we need to move things along, not to loiter in meaningless fights." she begged for Elijah's good sense.

"Bekah is wearing her bossy pants today." Klaus taunted.

She eyed him crossly. "Sod off Nik."

"I will in a bit but first I feel like juggling everyone's memory." he parted his arms to improve the dramatic reenactment. "Previously, in the Mikaelson Family." he started off loudly. "On a very distant Viking age, there was a witch called Esther who forged a medallion under a beautiful blue moon night, legend says that she took a silver necklace, that was offered to her by someone she loved greatly, and melted it using magical fire." he made sure his audience was listening attentively. "When her husband found her busy with such malevolent doings, she was already finishing the spell but in a rage spur, he killed her unable to deal with the lack of respect towards him."

"Is this really necessary?" Rebekah scolded him.

Klaus jolted like a child. "But the good part comes now!"

Rebekah's eyes turned red and her fangs descended.

Klaus winked at her. "A medallion was in her hand when she was found dead, it is said that the irregular unfinished lines in it were carved with her tears melting along with the hot silver and that its dark color results from her blood loss."

"Mother's medallion belongs to me as the older son in the family." Elijah tried to make his voice prevail above the pain he was letting out as he spoke.

"It's mine by right because the original necklace was given to her by Ansel." Klaus reminded him.

"And Kol, the talisman whore, stole it from father…" Rebekah looked at Klaus first followed by a glance towards Elijah. "Then I tricked Kol once and stole it from him so I could give it to you... I swear that this bloody medallion is like a hex to this family."

"It's the only thing we have left of our mother." Elijah strongly fortified his relentless fight to keep the talisman instead of Klaus.

"All of her essence as an Original witch was conjured into that unique amulet, that sum of power shouldn't be on your frail hands Elijah." Klaus said.

"They are strong enough to tear that head away from your shoulders." Elijah threatened.

"I presume you're still a tad pressed about the Celeste affair…" Klaus guessed the bad mood wasn't only about Esther's medallion.

"I'm going to look for a house." Elijah turned his back on Klaus.

Used to the image, he pointed at Rebekah. "Take this one with you."

"What?" she refused to be treated like unwanted merchandise. "I'm offended that you don't want me here."

"And I've given up caring about what you and the holiness over there think about me since the last time we were all standing in this house." Klaus shot quickly. "Try not to let all that adjudicating behavior hit you both on the way out."

Rebekah tried to keep a straight posture as she caught up to Elijah already waiting for her in the lobby.

* * *

"… did you see the way she said that she wanted to turn me into a voodoo doll?" Katherine trapped all of her hair in a tight bun while she confided in Matt all the irk ways Sophie pissed her off. "… I just have this feeling that she's like the old folklore witches and that she boils people inside of her black pot."

"Didn't you try to boil a black cat once?" Matt asked with a frown.

"Caroline stopped me, she was squealing about the adorable little ball of fur but you're missing the point Matt." Katherine did a few stretches with her arms. "Sophie is not a good witch and she has crazy eyes."

"You also have crazy eyes…"

"Will you stop making parallels? It's very annoying."

Matt had the smallest sigh before catching her foot as she stretched her leg and bent her body forward.

When she switched legs, she asked him with a calmer voice. "Aren't you commenting on that?"

"You ordered me to shut up with your glare."

Katherine smiled. "I don't like being compared to her, I'm nothing like that insipid woman. I know how to dress, ok?"

He laughed because of her poignant defense. "I never said that you were like her, she's a black magic witch as well but she doesn't have me."

"Matty…" Katherine tucked her waist impressed. "That was very raw of you."

"It's the truth Kat, without my white magic blocking and controlling your black arts, you would be a loose canon and we would experience the plagues of Egypt every other week."

"Well, there are only ten of them…" she roguishly smiled.

Although she agreed with him on everything she was never going to admit that he was right, especially to his face.

"The day you see frogs falling from the sky, beware people of Louisiana, for Matt Donovan has perished." he loudly laughed.

But Katherine wasn't when she replied. "And they better have lamb's blood above their doors because Katherine Pierce, the Angel of death will come into their houses and smite them all in revenge."

Matt was struck with her genuineness and was in no control when he looked at her with a slightly different set of eyes. "Do you actually like me?"

Katherine lost her grip on all of that steel buoyancy for the tiniest fraction of a second. "Don't get your hopes up, I tolerate you." she tried to skim away with a smug laughter but she totally crumbled into a silly laugh in contradiction.

It was contagious and he laughed as well.

"Just attack me already." she finally huffed to put an end to the silly party.

Matt nodded snaking his arms around her, he locked his hands behind her back keeping her inside of a tight bear hug.  
His arms were under hers and he could easily tip her over like this so the first thing that Katherine remembered from her training was that she had to put some weight on her right leg and turn her body slightly on the side making his hold harder to keep.

"Good…" Matt picked up on it happy but he wasn't easing his hold a tiny bit. "I can still immobilize you like this so you need to take me down as fast as you can."

Katherine moved her elbow, resting it against his face, he moved his head away from the rehearsed hit and broke his hold around her but she was ready for another round. "Again." she seriously said.

And he easily made her work harder, he grabbed her without warning and tried to take her down to the floor but Katherine found a way to break away from him and she happily grinned when he lowered his face so that she couldn't elbow him and she answered with a hand shoved against his nose.  
The pain she caused him wasn't a pretend but he wasn't mad at her, he often did this with the girls for a reason, he wanted them to able to defend themselves and they all got really good at it.

No other worked harder than Katherine though, little by little the others stopped asking him for lessons but Katherine kept calling him almost every week to practice at her big house.  
After an hour of training and unfortunately losing to Matt a few times, Katherine faced the ceiling tired but happy.

"You are the only man who makes me sweat like this Matt."

He offered his hand to her with a husky breath. "At least this way I don't have to worry about your super secret errands when you're off to meet God knows who, alone."

Katherine used his help to get up, clearly the sudden trip stuck with Matt and now that she was done with it, she didn't really see a reason to keep the details from him anymore. "Do you know the guy Caroline has been seeing?"

"Yeah… Klaus." Now he was terrified of what was coming.

"I met his brother on the day of the party at Klaus' house and it was a picturesque meeting, to say the least." Katherine picked up two bottles of water that she had ready for them and handed one to Matt. "He was lying inside of a coffin with a dagger buried in his chest, when I removed the dagger he woke up and we had a small pleasant conversation…" she opened her bottle with a shrug. "He was very polite and asked me for a favor."

Matt wished that his water was alcohol. "So of course that you decided to trust the stranger, who probably was immobilized for good reason."

"I don't know, I didn't ask about that." she reinforced. "I only cared about the part where he said I had to find his sister and ask her to come to New Orleans."

Matt really just shook his head in disbelief.

She ignored his reaction because it's what he always did when she told him about her adventures. "Then he asked to be daggered again and the next morning I went to the address he gave me looking for this Rebekah girl. I found her and she asked me to open a safe, which was totally cool because it was locked with magic." she added excited. "Turns out that the blonde didn't find what she was looking for, something about some family medallion or something… I totally zoned her out when I saw the pearls."

"Please tell me that you didn't steal anything."

"Rebekah stole the bracelet for herself and gave me the necklace."

Matt's deep sigh was long and painful. "I'm speechless."

"Anyway, I left with my pearls and I'm guessing she followed me back into town to free Elijah from his moldy prison."

Matt handed her the intact bottle of water. "I'm going home, I need a shower and something to drink from the long family of bourbon."

"You wanted to know…" she spread her arms.

"You need professional help." he walked to the door determined.

She groaned going up the big staircase. "Whatever, Captain of Team Good."

* * *

Caroline took off her sunglasses perplexed. "Josh?"

The vampire spun around looking for her. "Hi."

She was holding a coffee cup but still pointed at Tyler's house with her busy hand. "You're here." the minimal dialogue was inane but she was just taken aback to find him here.

"I'm trying to make sure they end everything today."

Caroline looked behind him, there were a few workers carrying furniture inside the house and she spotted Tyler coming their way as well.

"You look amazing today by the way." Josh couldn't let the moment slip away, she looked divine in a fashionable denim buttoned up shirt, skinny black pants and boots.

"Thank you so much." she genuinely appreciated the gesture. "I needed that this morning."

"I'm happy I could make you smile." Josh left her and Tyler alone.

"Hey Ty." she greeted her friend with a smile while he warmly hugged her.

"Morning Care, it's good to see you around here."

"I'm sorry I didn't come earlier, I've been dealing with coven problems and then there's Marcel gnashing his teeth and Klaus…" she told him the rest with her eyes.

"Klaus sent his vampires to help rebuild the house and I really don't know what's going on."

"Welcome to my world." Caroline had a small sip from her coffee. "We are kind of a thing but his family is flocking to town and I'm not sure how well they get along with each other so I'm already foreshadowing how messy Thanksgiving will be. Then there's Marcel… who I am avoiding like the plague."

"You can't avoid Marcel or ignore him Care, it's not a smart move unless you have a really good reason for it."

She started playing with the lid of her cup. "Remember when things used to be simple? We dodged school, tried to drink Marcel's alcohol and make out in my room, the only complex part was learning how our bodies worked…" she guided a hand across her forehead. "When did things become so hard and knotty?"

It was funny how things evolved but the memory was a meaningful part of him. "Care, I became an Alpha and you became a kick ass leader of a strong coven, things had to change."

"I'm a lousy leader… everyone does what they want inside of this coven anyway. The only leadership that exists comes from Bonnie who quietly stops us all from going overboard with our tricks."

"Do you need another hug?" Tyler lessened his eyes.

Caroline adorably pleaded him with her eyes and a gentle nod, his hug was as warm as his smile and she thanked him with her eyes closed. "Thanks wolf-guy."

"Anytime broom-girl."

* * *

As soon as she finished reading what she wrote, Bonnie grimaced horrified and made a big cross on top of the entire thing.

"Everything always looks better with coffee." Marcel arrived to the oval table in the library with a smile and a cup of coffee for Bonnie.

She looked up smiling and accepted the coffee agreeing with him. "My first draft of an appeal looks like I'm begging the judge with Richard Gere's voice and the Chicago soundtrack playing in the background."

"Let's see what you have here Miss Bennett." Marcel pulled the pad near him to read her draft. "Good usage of Character Evidence but you have to be more assertive so that others don't mistaken it with Habit Evidence."

Bonnie wasn't wasting Marcel's knowledge of law and she retrieved her pad back, changed pages and looked at Marcel ready to make notes.

The big green eyes targeting him from above the coffee cup all eager to learn made him chuckle but he complied easily. "In Character Evidence you try to prove that a person acted in a particular way on a particular occasion based on the character or disposition of that person while in Habit Evidence you seek to show that a person behaved in a particular way on a particular occasion based on that person's prior bad acts. Or based on the opinions of a witness, or based on that person's reputation in the community."

Bonnie took notes rapidly, trying to get everything on paper. "Ok… got it."

"I volunteer to tell you all about Character Witness over dinner…" Marcel tried to guess her reaction, it wasn't far from the slow look she gave him.

"Like dinner with a bunch of other people around the table?" she used the cup as a barricade between them as he inched closer to her.

Marcel lightly touched one of these wild curls that she always had bouncing around her face. "I want to have dinner with you Bonnie in a restaurant, that I will reserve only for us, with candles and nice music and everything that I think you deserve."

She nervously clicked her army boots together under the table. "What do you think I deserve after dinner?"

"Damn, I wanted to surprise you with that." he rested his arm on the table but his body was inching dangerously closer and closer to hers.

"I don't like surprises." she puckered her lips.

"You need to give me a chance Bonnie." he asked her softly and oh so infinitely charming, his hand grazing her cheek. "I can't show you how good I am at this if you keep rejecting my gifts of affection."

She was caught up in his unbending stare and when she lowered her eyes, she allowed herself to have a longer look at the bulky chest hugged by a tight shirt, the big arms visibly wanting to circle around her petite body and lastly she lifted her eyes to what was, a really hot face.  
Strong cheekbones and a hint of scruff were her thing, furthermore, Marcel had stunning dark eyes that were alluring with all the life they mirrored in them.

"Well, I like to eat and I hate doing it alone…" she bravely launched the briefest flirt in history.

It was sufficient to cause a fire inside of Marcel and he parted his lips to a boastful smile, this time the softest inch came from the two of them and with the same compass until someone dropped a heavy book on the table startling them with the huge thud.  
Marcel and Bonnie looked at the man sitting down at the table with the same unwelcome set of eyes.

"I do hope that I'm interrupting." Kol smirked resting his boots on top of the table and leaning back on his chair.

* * *

The house looked amazing, with the new windows and the new paint, the workers were now fixating the new front door and soon would start on the garden and all of this left the hybrid extremely pleased.

"The renovation is coming along nicely…"

Tyler was helping the vampires with the door and had a small peeking smile. "I have no family left and my pack is forever imprisoned in the swamp but I have a big ass pretty house all for myself, I don't know why that makes me feel so shallow..."

"You'll get used to the space."

"If you are going to sire vampires to keep me company, I only want women."

That made Klaus laugh but he was still hung up on what was happening in the Bayou. "The wolves are confined to that space?"

Tyler cleaned his hands of any dirt and came down the porch to meet the other man half-way. "Caroline had no choice in that, the spell was clear as water, the werewolves were prohibited to leave that area…" there was a telling delay. "At least as wolves."

Klaus had a quiet laugh. "She likes to define limits on her own vision."

"Don't get excited, it's a loophole that Marcel didn't miss and his vampires surround the woods every full moon to stop anyone from breaking his rules. The werewolves were banned from his domains and honestly, I have no idea how you plan to change that."

"Where does all this hatred come from? I never knew Marcel was such an antagonist about werewolves."

"It all comes down to a false sense of power, Marcel talks the big talk but he built his empire on unsteady consecrated ground. The vampires don't rule this city but the werewolves never did either, this piece of land that everyone wants to call its own, belongs to the witches and if Marcel didn't have Caroline's support, he and his  _crew_ would be scrapping the alleys for rats to eat."

"With each day, I grow more convinced that Caroline was a strategic pawn well played on Marcel's ascend to the top." Klaus said with looming words that really didn't taste well in his tongue.

"You didn't hear it from me but it was damn convenient that he found Caroline alive in that dead village."

Klaus looked away to the vast property thoughtful, if Marcel acted from the start with intent he was an opponent to take into consideration after all.

"Klaus?" One of the sired vampires rushed with urgent news to the place where Klaus and Tyler were. "I just got a call from Savannah, she heard one of the wolves hauling in pain and when she got there, she found him caught in a bear trap."

"Marcel…" Tyler growled in fury.

* * *

Marcel wished that the stare contest wasn't made while the other was wearing sunglasses but he still glared and waited for Kol to stand up and leave.  
All far from what he was planning and Kol had his coffee as casually as someone clueless to what was happening on the other side of the table.

"I'm going to leave." Bonnie was the first to have a physical reaction and packed her things.

"I'll call you later." Marcel tried to recreate the intimate moment.

Sadly it was broken now and Bonnie sighed as the strap of her bag settled on her shoulder. "I need to work on my assignment, wretchedly I can't compel idiots to leave me alone when I need them to…"

"Handsome idiots, darling." Kol interrupted her.

She turned to face him. "I was talking about my professor of Trial Advocacy… moron." she forcefully smiled before going away.

"She's going to be a ruthless lawyer." Kol said at ease.

"She wants to be a Judge." Marcel corrected him.

"Hmm…" Kol moaned loudly. "All that pride in your voice is an emergent warning to others of how deeply you care for her."

"Some of us decided not to die along with the lack of beating in our hearts."

Kol took down his feet from the table and pulled the chair closer, he relaxed his arms on top of the mahogany and addressed Marcel interested only in what concerned him. "What progress have you made regarding my body?"

"I heard that the Romani burned your remains."

"Klaus kept the ashes." he assertively affirmed.

"How do you know that he didn't poetically toss them in the Nile?"

Kol shook his head with a knowing vibe. "The old dog barks a lot but he cares for this dysfunctional family like no other. Out of us all, he was the one truly heartbroken about the outcome of our last reunion in this city, he wouldn't just release my quintessence into thin air like that."

Marcel released this loud laughter as he stood up. "The funniest thing is that I actually think he did and all the while you still live with this fantasy that your family wanted you at all but really Kol… they didn't give a rat's arse whether you lived or died."

Kol lost the conceited smile as he was left alone at the table.

* * *

Tyler felt his heart drop, the wound was bad and now that all the blood was clean, he could tell a few broken bones that would take a while to heal, he gently ran his hand through the fur of the wolf hoping that would ease him when in reality he was the one in need of a good patching.

"My vampires found all these, scattered around the woods." Klaus dropped at least ten bear traps on the ground next to Tyler and the wounded wolf.

Tyler remained on his knees. "I know that this was Marcel's doing, it's retaliation for going against his rules."

"If that's the case, then Marcel needs a reminder that blood washes blood."

Tyler looked at Klaus at once. "Don't get me keyed up like that."

"If Marcel was to send someone, on the uncanny mission of placing deadly traps for defenseless creatures unable to form into their human shape… who would he send?"

"Thierry Vanchure, he is Marcel's most loyal soldier and his right-hand. But he wouldn't come here himself…" Tyler stood with a glow in his eyes. "He would assemble a small group of men to carry out the mission during the night that turned out successful."

Klaus pulled the heavy chain at the end of one of the bear traps. "Naturally they would gather somewhere cozy and dark to celebrate the striking attack." he handed the chain to Tyler.

Who took it with a smile. "I think you will like that bar in Metairie where they paint the windows black for special clients."

"Lead the way, young Brutus." The obscurity in Klaus' smile went hand in hand with the glimmer in his eyes.

* * *

The juvenile joke made Caroline laugh and Marcel would have recognized that sound even if he was blind and on the ground bleeding without a heart, it brought such warmth to him that it resembled being alive.  
He waited until she saw him to make a move, he left the wall that had been his waiting spot for the last hour and hoped for her to come to him.

Caroline bid her friends goodbye and exited the building with him, when he chose the bench near the smaller garden, she knew it was serious.

"Last time we sat here, you told me that Matt wrecked his car in an accident…" she somberly sank in her seat.

"Why didn't you tell me about Diego?"

Caroline should have guessed Marcel would pine over the information obsessively. "I wanted to tell you but there wasn't any easy way to say,  _hey, Diego likes to walk in when I'm only wearing a towel and he makes up crappy excuses for it_."

"You just said it." Marcel snapped.

"Yeah but…" Caroline pressed her lips eating her words.

"But what? One of my men was disrespectful to you, you  _had_  to tell me."

Caroline huffed upset. "I know but you really liked him for some reason."

"I love you." There was no comparison possible for Marcel. "You will always come first to me Caroline."

She landed her stare on the ground at her feet. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I made him cough blood for a week after he tried to surprise me in the shower so I figured that that made it a closed chapter."

Marcel shook his head unable to accept it. "I should have done something either way, it was my job to keep you protected and it shatters my accomplishments altogether that Diego tried that inside of my own house, where I welcomed him and the others."

"I'm Caroline Forbes, I don't need a hero 24/7." Her personality rose up.

He gave her a look that stole a giggle from her and the disposition between them eased up.

"Caroline… I know that I lost my cool lately in a glorious pity way but none of what I've conquered so far makes sense if you are not part of it. I've created this fortitude for us, so that we can live in peace because believe me, there's no greater hell than to live forced to look over our shoulder constantly."

"Klaus told me about the day he fought and killed Mikael."

"I barely survived that day, Mikael had a stake close to my heart when Klaus took him down and I swore I would never again feel the breath of death like that."

"Klaus is trying to find out more about my past and I'm working on a cure for his curse." she came clean with Marcel.

"I already knew that." he was too perceptive to have missed it. "I know him better than you do Caroline." Marcel loudly inhaled. "But I also know you better than he does and it's out of my hands now to stop any of it."

"Maybe you could trust that you've raised me well and that I can make good decisions."

"Only if you trust that I never meant to put you in harm's way and that I had nothing to do with your parents' death."

Looking straight into his eyes like she had done so many times before, that regret came fast like a wave and it roofed her like a big blanket. "Do you promise that the monsters are all left outside?"

Marcel's emotional tears rushed to his eyes, the silly question she kept asking him when she was a little girl became a thing between them and he had to push a smile through the lump in his throat.

He bent down checking under the bench where they were seated, just like he did countless times with her bed. "It looks like it to me."

Caroline was smiling partnering a few tears as well and she hid inside of his arms when he pulled her closer. "I'm sorry I doubted you…" she said against his chest.

"And I'm sorry I said all those things back at Klaus' house, baby girl." he stroked her hair and kissed her head like only a father would do. "I lost it when I found that you went behind my back with Klaus but I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me more to know that you were having a fling with him..." he made a visceral growl. "I don't care how tall you get, you're still 7 years old to me."

Caroline laughed against his chest. "Sorry to burst your bubble dad but I just turned 19."

He hauled away with shock. "What are you talking about? It was just last week that you forced Thierry to make a Barbie Castle for you."

Caroline lively laughed.

Marcel quietly sighed happy with the truce. "You know that there's only one way to settle this now…"

Her grin was huge.

* * *

"Go get us another bottle." Max ordered the new vampire.

The other being of a lower rank, had no choice but to do as ordered and left the table with a grumble and a few swearing words, he asked for another bottle of the cheap whiskey and headed back to the celebrating crowd quickly but before he reached them, the sun annoyingly hit his face and he looked at the front door annoyed with the two guys walking in and disturbing the dark environment.

"Those who are not of vampire nature should leave now." Klaus loudly spoke to everyone inside the bar.

Humans in New Orleans didn't need a second warning and even the bartender jumped over the counter and ran as fast as he could to the exit.  
Once they were left alone with the targeted group, Klaus closed the door and locked it from the inside with a steel chain.

Max stood up taking one of the empty bottles in the table smashing it against his leg, now that he had a cutting weapon he eyed Tyler first. "Did you really have to bring Grandpa with you?"

Tyler smiled dropping one end of his chain on the ground. "He was bored today so I told him where he could find some entertainment, you know… where all the dumb fangs hide when the sun keeps them grounded."

Max snarled leaping at Tyler, the werewolf effortlessly entangled the chain around Max's neck and pulled him closer, when Max tried to bite him on the arm Tyler pulled the chains tighter and then shoved Max's head through the nearest window.

He left Max burning in agony as the sun toasted him and picked up the broken bottle. "Next?" he asked the remaining vampires.

They all stood and showed him fangs but the first line of soldiers stopped as Max's fuming head landed at their feet and they all looked at Klaus in sync.

He darkly chose one of them. "The problem with this young generation is their tongue." he grabbed him by the throat and pulled his head back, the move was so fast that no one actually saw it until the blood smeared Klaus' golden scruff and he dropped the corpse to the ground. "They just don't know when to stop with the dire jokes."

Everyone flinched as he sauntered the tongue of the other vampire in his bloodied hand.

* * *

The euphoria they encountered in their next chosen Pub was a reflection of how giddy they felt inside and the duo shamelessly snatched two beers from Vicki's tray as she walked by them, she still tried complaining but Klaus and Tyler were already out of her reach.

Gloating in all of the joyful fuss, Marcel was thanking the mass of tourists ecstatic about his performance and Klaus nodded towards the stage because of it. "We just missed the show, how will I cope with the anguish?" he claimed an empty stool as his.

Tyler stopped him before Klaus turned his attention completely away from the stage. "You have no idea how wrong you are, the real show is only about to start."

Klaus squinted at him but he only turned on the stool when the crystal clear voice robbed all of his senses and with the slowest motion he steered his notice to the girl singing on stage without flaw.

 _"… If I could find a way I'd take back those words that hurt you and you'd stay…"_  
  
"It's a duel, sometimes Marcel and Caroline make them but I don't know why he bothers." Tyler chuckled. "She always wins."

Caroline had this radiant light when she sang, she moved around the stage owning it and everyone around the arena was engaged with her performance.

_"_ _If I could turn back time_ _  
_ _If I could find a way_ _  
_ _I'd take back those words that hurt you_ _  
_ _And you'd stay_ _  
_ _If I could reach the stars_ _  
_ _I'd give them all to you_ _  
_ _Then you'd love me, love me_ _  
_ _Like you used to do..."_

Recognizing the drooling expression from Klaus, Tyler laughed after emptying half of his beer. "We've all been there Klaus."

He had no words for Tyler, Caroline had robbed them all with her wide range of abilities and he was sold on her singing act like no one else inside the room, he had his beer slowly, she even added a small dance to her routine.  
The energetic way she got everyone singing with her was a delight to watch, just like it was seeing Katherine and Bonnie cheering for their friend.

Even Matt added a nice little whistle to the noises when she ended her song and bowed to her audience.  
Marcel was back on stage and she gave him a sassy look knowing she had outdone him but the ultimate choice would be made evenhandedly by the bar crowd.

Thierry went on stage and asked for silence. "On my right, is the smooth criminal and king of hearts…" he lowered his voice. "The voice of seduction, Marcel Gerard."

The girls screamed like he was a rock star and he reveled in it without embarrassment.

"On my left…" Thierry changed his voice to a flirting tone as he took Caroline's hand. "The one and only, the fairest of them all, the angel with the voice of a goddess, Caroline Forbes."

The bar erupted in a deafening sound with applause and screams.

Thierry smiled. "I think it's obvious who won today's duel, sorry Marcel but Caroline killed with that version of Cher." he apologized to his boss while lifting Caroline's arm in the air announcing her victory.

She bounced elated and celebrated her win by coming down stage and jumping with Katherine and Bonnie.  
Marcel sulked with the defeat and thought that a drink would be perfect, if it wasn't for the two strange bedfellows having a drink together at the bar.

"I see that this friendship is blossoming." Marcel was wary of it.

"One to leave so many tongue-tied." Klaus joked cruelly.

Marcel missed the joke altogether but Tyler snorted and he hated the foul linger left in the air as Klaus occupied himself with a drink and Tyler left to play pool with a few girls.  
He was missing something important and that usually came sided with a nice bloodied surprise from the Mikaelson.

Thierry could read Marcel's inner thoughts all over his face as he arrived to his table, he merely motioned his head asking what was wrong without verbalizing it.

"Call everyone in tonight, every vampire we have in every corner in the city, send word that there's a reunion back at the house at dawn. I'm not comfortable having Klaus on the loose so we need to make a head count."

Thierry was discretely watching Klaus across the room. "Why would he go after us when…" he halted unsure if he wanted to go on.

"I haven't told Klaus about our plans so I'm left wondering why is he here in the first place and that's a big problem for us." he disclosed to his friend in the lowest of whispers.

Just as he listed all the questions inside of his head.  
If Klaus wanted a witch to break his curse all he had to do was send his vampires after any witch capable of doing it, there was no actual need to come himself all the way to New Orleans.

His sudden alliance to Tyler made even less sense to Marcel, never in ten centuries Klaus cared enough about a pack to spend 10 minutes with any of them and now he was bonding with Lockwood?  
It made no sense.

The only somewhat logical behavior was his smitten manners towards Caroline, just now watching Klaus gazing at her while she danced with Bonnie and Katherine was an indication of how he saw her.  
That wasn't unanticipated by Marcel, although he had expected Caroline to put some resistance to Klaus but he of all people knew how some things just happened against motive or rationality.

All the same to him because it all came back to the one question burdening him, why was Klaus still in town and acting so unpredictably?  
If he was unable to stick Klaus into the habit behavior that he knew well from him, how the hell was he supposed to be a step ahead of him?

Damn, now his head hurt and he needed a drink.  
Thierry as always was kept to himself and unaffected by Marcel's sighs and introspective moments.

* * *

"Do you want another beer?" Vicki asked with hurry, the bar was packed and the noise was making her cranky.

Well, that was a lie because the only thing ticking her off was the big joyful show Caroline and her friends were giving, it drove her insane that people were able to be so  _happy_.  
Even her brother was all laughs and toasts when he was around them.

Subtly avoiding the bad mood, Klaus was concise with his request. "Dalmore."

Vicki rolled her eyes. "What's with you guys and that yellow drink? I just sold the only bottle I had to Kaleb."

The information made Klaus look to the end of the counter, what an unusual request from a young fella. "That's a very expensive palate that you have there." he sat next to Kaleb keen on finding more, he certainly spiked his interest.

"It's worth every outrageous penny."

Klaus intently observed the young warlock. "The single malt was my brother's favorite drink."

"He sounds very charismatic, was he your favorite brother?" he asked with a sudden thrill.

It all felt strangely off to Klaus. "Not particularly, I actually didn't like him much, I always found him maddening but I like his whiskey of choice."

Kol stood up taking the glass with him but slid the bottle to Klaus. "He would be disheartened to know that." he walked away somberly.

Klaus looked back once… no. It wasn't possible…  
With a chuckle he filled his glass, sometimes the oddest thoughts crossed his mind.

Still the drink was really outstanding and he savored it with a big smile, the day had been particularly exceptional, nevertheless that pesky feeling that something was missing began to toy with him and Klaus turned his head in hopes to see her dance a little, he had enjoyed that quite a lot.  
Sadly Caroline was no longer with her friends and Klaus skimmed the room searching for her until a sneaky hand appeared on his chest solving the riddle, she was just behind him and he turned around happy with that.

She left no space between them, letting him know how happy she was to find him here when he stood up.

Klaus hid his hands in her soft wonderful hair. " _H_ _e stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking_."

"That's one of my favorite passages from Anna Karenina…" she was touched by his allusion.

"Leo Tolstoy was a gifted man when it came to words."

She defiantly smiled. "Anna left everything behind for a passion she hadn't known before Vronsky, he offered her the world but tragically fell in love with the world instead and made her miserable in the end."

"Tolstoy liked to drink so he wrote most of his work intoxicated."

She laughed perceptibly amused with his changing tune but her joy came from something else as well. "I like this bromancing going on between you and Tyler."

"I enjoy his personality, it's uplifting to see some brass bravery in the face of adversity."

That reminded her of the talk she had with Tessa earlier. "I called Tessa this morning and she told me about her bloodline and that got me thinking that I might be able to help you find your blood family." His expression crossed from surprise to hope and Caroline encouraged the last with her honesty. "I think that I know how to make a spell using your blood to create a family tree, I can't give you names but I could give you at least something to work with."

He roguishly smirked. "How does Marcel feel about losing his prime witch? I might not want to give you back regardless of how you've made peace with him now."

She nailed a deadly look. "I only answer to myself Nik, don't ever doubt that. And the thing with Marcel is that if I listen to my heart, I know that I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him..." her voice still dropped on that cue. "Even if I can't trust him the way I used to. But until I get all my memories back, I'm sticking to what I feel."

"It's going to be an odd turn of roles when he comes to speak to me about my liaison with his daughter."

She bit her lip giving in to a smile before the question forced its way out. "Why are you seriously not tired of me yet? Marcel told me that your interest in anything lasted less than the draining of a body."

"How can anyone get tired of the sun? It's the one thing that vampires miss the most after they are turned, they all crave to stand under that warmth for just one more day. Blind men dream of endless sunsets and after every storm, the sun always makes those who are faithless believe in something again." Klaus leaned over contemplating a beauty he found remarkable. "Powerful enough to burn those who get too close and only shying away at night for the moon to come out."

"I'm going to get really mad if you don't kiss me in the next 5 seconds." she tickled his muscled arms with her gentle fingertips.

Klaus tilted her head for a kiss that was rough, deep and everything that was right in the world, she had a hard time following the lead of his commanding tongue but she still managed to give him a good and fair fight.  
When they placed a tiny gap between their mouths, Klaus secured her bellow her waist and raised her a bit from the ground, she giggled looking down on him and losing her fingers in the small curls of his hair.

"I'm taking you to my house now." he informed her.

"Will there be any other surprising family members dropping by to say hello?" she loved that he was walking and carrying her out of the bar like that.

"There's always the ghost of my brother to take into consideration…" he mused.

She laughed in his arms with will.

* * *

Bonnie was counting the money and completely missed the couple appearing out of nowhere in front of her, when she turned left on a desperate change of gear, she bumped into Kol.  
He looked at his right noticing that she was searching for something.

"Where's the girl you were kissing 10 minutes ago?" she asked.

"In the restroom." he easily answered.

Bonnie clutched the bills in her hand and pretended to be a lot stronger than she would ever be. "Kat and Matt are waiting for their drinks so I'm going away to pretend there's not a knife plunged into my heart and in plain sight…"

When she attempted to go by him, he unexpectedly grabbed her arm and she faced him a bit in fear and a bit in alarm.

"You're a smart girl Bonnie, it's evident that this affair we had meant more to you than it meant to me. If I never called you back it's proof enough that I'm not a good soul so let's just leave it at that and carry on with our lives, suffice to say that this is the best for the both of us."

She nodded. "I agree with you Kaleb but I'm still not giving you that key back."

He let go of her arm but not of that rising feeling that he hadn't given her enough credit.

* * *

Caroline hugged the pillow basking in pleasure as he trailed all of her back with smooth unhurried kisses, she quietly moaned as he covered every inch with his lips and his hands.

He kissed around her waist, came up from her lower back and kissed all the way to the side of her body, then he focused on leaving small kisses just under her shoulder plates.

When he reached her neck, Klaus moved lying completely on top of her, though they were covered only from the waist down, his heat was enough to burn her naked body.  
Caroline knew that it was all result of this intense yearn for the man kissing the back of her neck and she reached out to touch him.

Klaus took her hand and kissed it but didn't let her hold his head, he wanted to keep exploring and kissing her and if the thought that Klaus was going to take her exactly as they were lingered in her mind, he seemed to not even be thinking of it.  
Slowly, he rested his hands on each side of her body and started to kiss down her spine, igniting this raw fire with each slow kiss that warmed her skin.

* * *

"This isn't funny anymore Kat." Matt grumbled after losing again.

She aimed at the center of the board and the dart flew out of her hand with precision, it was the final blow for another competitive game between them. "One more?" she asked knowing she was on a roll.

"I can't afford it…" he counted the rest of his money. "Literally."

Katherine returned to his side with the darts. "Do you need anything Matt?"

"Of course not." he shrugged the truth away. "I just don't like having my ass kicked by a chick."

Katherine cocked her eyebrow at him but the response came from Bonnie.

"Sometimes you do this thing, where you open your mouth and ruin everything." she stopped near them closing her purple leather jacket.

"Are you leaving already?" Katherine wasn't happy. "Please don't tell me that you're rushing back to the dorm to finish that essay…"

Bonnie smiled sweetly. "No, I'm actually going to have some shell-on shrimp at that place that stays open until late." she turned on her side and looked back so that they saw who was waiting for her at the exit.

"Bon Bon!" Katherine took her hand at once. "Are you going to do it with Marcel?"

"The only thing I'm tackling tonight is NOLA barbecued shrimp." she assured Katherine.

"Go have fun then and if he gets too frisky, just turn him into ashtray food."

Bonnie went away softly chuckling and she kept a sincere smile as she walked by her former boyfriend. "Goodnight Kaleb."

"Goodnight Bonnie." Kol smiled as well and he lifted his glass to the man holding the door for her.

Marcel murdered him with a look before he left with Bonnie.

* * *

The field was so big that Caroline couldn't see the end of it, no matter how hard she tried to guess where it ended, it appeared to have no end and the view left her out of breath.  
She was surrounded by flowers, hundreds, thousands of them, of all sorts, shapes and colors.

With a twirl, the sunflowers tickled her hands but it was the roses that really attracted her and she lifted her wide skirt a bit so that she could sit in the middle of all the them.  
Caroline reached for a rose making the bracelets she was wearing clash against each other and with a soft sigh she plucked a white rose, closing her eyes as soon as the smell hit her nose.

The sweet fragrance was unparalleled and it reminded her of home.  
She wanted to gather a few roses to take back with her so she excitedly started collecting all the flowers she liked the best, as she rested them on her lap one of the roses were caught up in one of her golden bracelets and a small thorn scratched her delicate skin.

Caroline was going to touch the smallest drop of blood forming but before she did it, it plummeted to her lap and fell on top of the white rose turning it red.  
She slowly gasped, her skirt changed as well into a white gown and she was now 5 years old.

On her lap laid her mother's head instead of roses and Caroline was crying, stroking the ivory lifeless features attempting to sparkle any life into them.  
All the flowers in the field were gone now, they had been replaced by black sinister crows.

All of them creepily looking at her.

* * *

Caroline gasped horrifically waking up, she shuddered in fear taking too long to realize that she was in Klaus' bed instead of that ghostly field and that the weight around her was only Klaus' arm holding her as she slept on her side and facing away from him.

"Was it a bad dream?" he asked her quietly.

"It was a bad memory…" she answered discernibly shaken.

He cropped her body closer to him and hid his face in the crook of her neck. "You're safe now." he assured her as his arm secured her stronger than before against his chest.

She relaxed trying to fall asleep again but that only happened when she searched for his hand and knotted her fingers with his.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

I bet my life -  _Imagine Dragons_

Dangerous -  _David Guetta & Sam Martin _(Acoustic Piano Version)

Cool kids -  _Echosmith  
_  
Born on the Bayou -  _Creedence Clearwater Revival  
_  
If I could turn back time -  _Cher  
_  
Jungle -  _Emma Louise  
_  
Let go for tonight -  _Foxes_

O'Children -  _Nick Cave_


	7. Afraid

The morning was well on its way and it was the first time she wasn't uncouthly awaken, that could explain the big smile on her face but being entangled with Klaus was a major reason why that smile was reaching her eyes.

"Thank you for not waking me up…" she was speaking while her hand sweetly found a pattern among his dirty-blonde curls.

"I enjoy watching you sleep."

She frowned with a tease. "That's oddly romantic yet very creepy of you."

"I'm not familiar with romance." he had a small arrogant chuckle.

Caroline caressed his shoulder, then slowly tickled his skin as she mapped his naked body, he was the opposite of conventional but there was just something in him that made it all easy.  
She found it simple the way she desired him with such strength and it was effortless for her to fall asleep with nothing between them, the sensation of their bodies naked and warming each other was becoming addictive.

Like he showed her in the shower the other day, he didn't want anything between them and she felt the same way.

Klaus was lowering a lazy index down her back. "You look wrapped up in thought."

"I should be scared of how fast all this is going and how comfortable I'm becoming around you…" Caroline drew every line in his face with her fingertips. "My people view life as a continuous struggle between a divine being and the devil…" she touched his soft lips. "Our spiritual balance depends on which gains control of our soul."

"I want your soul Caroline; I've wanted it from the second our eyes met."

The softest shiver crossed her skin. "Why?"

He pressed her body the tiniest bit, only to bring her a tad closer to him. "I want to possess you entirely. I don't think I ever wanted anything as stalwartly as I want you."

With a shimmer in her eyes and an impish smile she answered him. "I will never belong to any man or tenet. I will restore your soul before you steal mine."

He reacted to all the immense sparkling blue in her eyes with a fire of his own, his breath grew deeper moments before kissing her, they were lying on their side and their hands curved lines and sensitive areas they knew with eyes closed.  
Caroline's response to the kisses that increased of intensity came side by side with a silent moan that caused a reaction from Klaus; he clearly had a saying to verbalize with actions.

She allowed him an unspoken word about her refusal to cave completely to him but he would not have the last word about this, her next move made sure of it.  
Caroline's hand caressed his chest, languorous and enjoying the body so close to her but in her unhurried ways, she moved with intent.

The first rasp of a steady breath came from Klaus when she lowered her hand between them and knowingly touched him, Klaus' teeth gritted in sheer reaction to the hand wrapping around his growing limb.  
She moved her leg to better adjust in bed and rested it over his leg, while Klaus closed his eyes surrounded to the hand moving in a torturing rhythm Caroline started to kiss his neck.

She worked on him a little longer, watching ripples of pleasure in his features, taking in the hot air leaving a grunt he expelled announcing how close he was and during it all she watched him while he kept his eyes closed.

"Caroline…" he groaned her name.

She kissed his lips around the same time she stopped stroking him, Klaus opened his eyes accusing her of the mean action, she had stopped just as he was about to come.

Caroline smiled kissing him again and then moved her wet core against his hard throbbing erection.  
His lips parted into a telling smile, so that's what the Princess wanted now.

Klaus pinned her body against his with a hand in the crook of her back and penetrated her with one deep thrust, the side by side position was so good that Caroline's moan was throaty and she ran her fingernails across his back settling on the middle of his spine wanting him to keep as he was.

Klaus redrew enough to rub over that little responsive spot before he filled her again, his big hand framed the side of her neck while he established an unremitting rhythm welcomed by the slightest shift of her body in bed so that she could have him completely inside of her.  
Her leg went tighter around him, one hand lowered down his beautiful body but the other caressed his chest until it found home in his face.

He was incessant, going in and out of her with such skill that she just knew her high was about to peek, still she would not miss this chance to prove how much control she could have in this.  
Caroline locked her eyes with his, cupped the side of his neck as well and kept his attention on her as her body began to answer with a tighter grip around him.

The warm soaking vise was making the sway of his body easy and inviting and he closed his eyes but Caroline's hand on his neck gripped him harder as well.

"Look at me Nik…" she demanded with a husky whisper, when he looked at her with fiery eyes she smiled. "I want to look into your eyes while you come."

He hissed hardening his pace and Caroline's small screeches of delight came forward, yet she kept looking at him wanting nothing but to watch his pleasure while he was deeply inside of her.  
And Klaus went as deep as her body allowed him to, his hand drifted to caress her body and with a couple more thrusts he felt that bay of ecstasy leaving him weak to the woman shuddering but smiling elated as she stroked his face.

"Thank you for this…" she inched closer to kiss him.

At first Klaus answered the kiss with a hint of reluctance, she wasn't speaking of her previous request at all, she was addressing the intimacy created and that he hadn't quite planned.  
Caroline kissed him gently and after the first resistance she had him kissing her back with the same closeness she pulled out of him effortlessly during sex.

* * *

Thierry looked up to the balcony where Marcel was and after a small exchange of looks he went up the staircase leaving the rest of the vampires behind.

Marcel went back inside the room with Thierry closely behind him. "The masses are restless…"

Thierry nodded at his maker. "Max and the others were slaughtered and it's not something that we can cover with another party."

The insolent pitch made Marcel turn his head to Thierry. "You agree with the others then…"

"Maybe I do." Thierry answered in a low voice.

Marcel lifted the glass he just filled. "Can I have a drink before I raise my war flag and ride to the Mikaelson castle?"

"Sure." Thierry dryly answered.

Marcel was gripping his throat before Thierry had time to regret the way he was handling this and while he was pinned against the wall pondering how this would turn out, Marcel had his drink harshly.  
When he dropped the glass to the floor, Thierry tried following his movements but Marcel was quicker and removed the daylight ring from Thierry's hand.

"I heard you talking to Joseph earlier." Marcel warned him about the direction this talk was going.

Thierry tamed his insolent tongue the tiniest bit. "If they had daylight rings, the vampires Klaus killed would have had a chance. If Caroline hadn't done only 12 of those, your men wouldn't have to hide in the shadows all the time." Bravely he had a deep breath and ended his small speech. "You want a good army but your soldiers are weak because you haven't demanded more rings from Caroline and no one is happy about that."

Marcel stepped back angry. "You are not happy that you are one of the twelve chosen ones?"

Thierry reeled. "I fought for this ring Marcel… we all have."

Marcel came to the balcony, looking down on his flock. "But you all need to fight to keep it, if you think that all this is taken for granted, you are all wrong." he jumped over the balcony and landed in the middle of them. "You think that all this comes for free?" he touched the expensive jacket of one, the bottle of whiskey another was holding. "The status you all have in this town comes with a price, it includes the occasional death. I chose the twelve bravest soldiers and rewarded them with a ring; all this time and I didn't know that I was putting jewelry on cowards."

The harsh words didn't fall smoothly among the group and Joseph, the big black man came closer to Marcel, because he was taller than the older vampire he tried to use that in his advantage. "Another man comes into town and starts killing your vampires and instead of fighting him, you stand here calling us cowards. I see my brothers dying but I haven't seen a thing from you yet to prove how much of a good leader you are."

Marcel held a stare with the other man as his hand dove into the chest in front of him; he removed Joseph's heart and held it above his head, as the other dropped to the floor Marcel exposed the bloodied item to everyone around them. "Let Klaus kill a hundred of my  _brave_ flock, if this is all I have to show then I should kill you all myself." Marcel moved the heart around him and everyone stepped back. "We don't go to war unless we are ready to win it and I will only fight Klaus Mikaelson when I have something that can actually hurt him and bind him down. If you all think that wearing a daylight ring is enough to take down an Immortal vampire and werewolf creature, then all that I've taught you along the years was pointless." he looked at Thierry who was approaching the group.

He stopped closely to Marcel with a regretful expression. "I never doubted you before and I know what we've been planning for years and how close we are to it, that's exactly why I don't want to risk losing it all now."

"After the full moon, this kingdom will be unbreakable and not even Klaus himself will be able to break through these walls." Marcel reminded them of the quest that drove them all this far.

Thierry rested his hand over Marcel's shoulder. "I believe in you Marcel and you have my support."

Marcel nodded looking to the rest of the crowd. "In just a few days, we will be unstoppable and we will be the prevailing species in New Orleans… for a start." His smile didn't hide the world domination wish. "At last we will be all that we set out to be."

The vampire closest to him was the first to drop his hand on Marcel's free shoulder, then another vampire took Thierry's shoulder and then all vampires followed the motion, taking the shoulder of the one closer to them to come together as a tight unit.

Marcel was pleased with the view and returned the daylight ring to Thierry. "A sword never kills by it's own, it's only a tool in the right hands."

"We are your sword, Marcel." Thierry assured him.

* * *

Her wet hair was dripping on the ancient books which was becoming a problem so Caroline jumped from his bed and targeted the nearest mirror, she effortlessly made a braid but it wouldn't be her if it wasn't full of turns and intricate knots.

It definitely caught Klaus' eye as he returned to the bedroom with a tray full of breakfast food. "Breakfast is served, Milady."

Caroline had lost track of Klaus after their shower together and it was nice that he was back with food on top of it all. "It smells divine…" she headed back to the bed excited.

He was smitten by the beauty wearing one of his shirts and he smiled because she was eyeing him with suspicion. "I inquired about you."

She held a perfect and beautiful Beignet. "I really  _really_ love these."

He smirked smugly.

Caroline knelt on his bed and snaked her arms around his neck. "Nice usage of really dodgy morals." she giggled.

"That's as far as Josh found about you, it appears that Caroline Forbes is a mystery wrapped around steel."

Her smile grew while her hands trailed his shoulders and then his chest. "All this is pure iron as well."

"Thank you for appreciating how well I take care of myself." he hinted a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Caroline laughed, melting a bit against him, she was about to kiss him when she halted at the last second. "Will I taste your breakfast?"

Powerfully he cupped her cheek. "Yes."

She answered the kiss the moment he crashed his lips against hers and although that metallic taste wasn't as rough to endure as the first time, she still broke the kiss sooner than he wanted.  
Caroline kissed his lips once more unwilling to go any further this time because she really hated the aftermath blood left in her tongue and Klaus was oddly respectful of that, he kept the kisses restricted to her lips and that really made her happy.

* * *

The strength behind the thuds on his door left Matt sure of who he was about to find on the other side of it and he tried having a warm smile for him.

"Donovan." The owner of the house greeted him with a rude take, the tall older man was heavy and he hated excuses. "You said that you would pay me yesterday."

"I know that I'm a little behind on the rent this month but I'm expecting some money today…"

The man pushed himself inside the house. "Your Mystic's paycheck won't come for another two weeks, are you going to make me wait until then?"

"No." Matt counted the money left in his wallet. "That's all I can get you now but it's almost half the rent so if you take that… I will get you the rest soon."

The man yanked the money from his hand. "Your only luck is that I know Marcel and he vouched for you but don't push it kid, you have until tomorrow to get me the rest of the money or you and your pretty sister can start looking for a new place to live."

Matt tried to smile as he held the door for the man but it was hard when he didn't have a backup plan at all.

* * *

Caroline licked her thumb when she finished the very last bit of a huge Beignet, she also liked the coffee and smiled at the man sitting behind her and kissing her cheek.

"Don't you have like evil things to do and malevolent plans to define?" she cutely asked him.

"I have minions on it." he brushed her chin gently with his fingers. "And they tell me that you raided my library while I was preparing your breakfast."

Caroline had a sip from her coffee looking at him with big culpable eyes. "I couldn't stop thinking about the dream I had last night."

Klaus' eyes landed on the books scattered on his bed and he picked one with a drawing of a black crow that filled a page. "You said that it was a memory."

Caroline moved a bit to better face him. "I was in a field with my dead mother and we were surrounded by crows."

"Crows and Ravens have been feared as symbols of death by many civilizations but I deem they have a very influential voice within the witch community as well."

"Crows symbolize the single most dangerous threat to us witches…" she licked her lips knowing the word would burn as soon as she released it. "They are the symbol of Rippers."

"Witches who hunt witches."

She nodded. "They are organized groups of hunters who hate what we are and their only mission in life is to track down and execute those who are gifted with witchcraft."

"Monique and her coven?" Klaus squinted.

Caroline shook her head. "Rippers will never come to New Orleans, there are too many gifted witches in here and they would never dare to confront all of us, plus a crow always announces their arrival and I haven't seen any black birds around."

"Yet you were visited by one in your dreams."

"Maybe Rippers found me in that camp and they were the ones who killed my parents."

He leaned over to kiss her softly. "It would certainly fill a blank space of your past."

She was smiling when they ended another unfold of slow kisses. "I want to help you get rid of your blank spaces as well."

He narrowed his eyes a little as she grabbed a knife from the breakfast tray; Caroline rested an open book on her folded bare legs, she was going to use the inside of the back cover of a book and searched for his hand to complete the ritual she needed for her spell.  
Klaus couldn't drift his eyes away from her for the tiniest inch, she was mesmerizing to watch as she concentrated on what she had to do.

Carefully she made the smallest cut on his index and dropped the blood on the beige worn-out page, as the drops started expanding a red line started from his index and began to spread.  
Klaus moved the sleeve of his dark-red Henley cautious of the way that line took over his veins so quickly.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." Caroline comforted him with a soft chuckle and a stroke of his tense features.

"Torture was not on the table when it came to my plans towards you." he eyed her wary.

"You have future plans?" her bright eyes sparkled surprised.

"It mostly consists of taking you to dinner as we never had a proper date." he easily tried to tone down her enthusiasm.

"I think that I like the idea of having something with you."

"Isn't it a bit raunchy to talk about commitments when you are magically making my veins burn?"

Complacently she smirked. "I like where this is going Nik."

He closed his hand reacting to a heating burn that was starting to hurt. "What have you done to me Caroline?"

She shrugged. "I've put a spell on you. It's a bit cliche but I love a good one."

Klaus closed his eyes dizzy and shook his head, he wasn't liking this a bit until this caring touch eased all that pain and ill-sensation away.

"It will be over soon." she whispered. "I just need to access all of your blood birthright so it's a little consuming."

His breath hardened but the pain was like a soft song in the background and he looked at her to confirm if she was using her healing powers on him.  
The weary way her heart started hammering in his ear told him exactly that and he decisively took her hand away from his face, when she frowned he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.

"It's sustainable." he simply said.

It hit Caroline with a crash. "You rather endure pain instead of letting me heal you?"

He managed to smile although everything was blazing inside of him. "Don't run to tell my brother Elijah about it, he will gloat in glee because he always taught me to take the left side of a lady to protect her from the horses on the street…" he pointed at the pillow. "I think that I should lie down."

She snuggled to his side and rested her chin on his chest. "Marcel told me that it was also a way to leave the right hand free in case the man was required to draw from his sword."

Klaus felt the pain finally wading. "And it's the easiest access to a swift heart removal."

She chuckled, now he made sense to her. "Is it too painful? I know that they rarely do this spell because it's known to be impossible for a human to sustain."

"Hence why you haven't used it for personal advantage yet."

She twirled her long braid around her finger. "I can't act out this sort of spells on myself, it takes a lot of magic and my only natural flowing energy is the healing. All the other spells I do come from this draining place…" she left his chest to pick up the book. "I'm like this dead battery that charges and makes magic, then I'm drained and it takes a long time to charge again."

Klaus sat up on the bed mapping her back with his hand at once.

"Don't lose sleep over it, I promise that I will be a highly charged battery when it comes to reverse your curse." she wanted to leave him at ease.

But strangely he was aiming at something different inside of him, it could be more than concern about her well-being but he wasn't inclined to name anything this early on.

"It's working." she pulled his attention towards the book.

There was a tree engraving itself on the book, red symbols after red symbols that represented a family lineage and Klaus touched the one that was standing alone. "I think we found my name."

It made sense that there wasn't anything after him while next to his symbol others kept on spewing until it stopped on a single symbol left at the very end of the page.

"It looks like yours…" Caroline tilted her head trying to make anything of it. "It's a wolf!" she jolted to look at him. "They both look like a wolf."

Klaus listened to her but he was caught up in the precision of her spell and he took the book like someone holding a precious family album, his entire history was there and never had he felt so overwhelmed by something.

* * *

"Matt Donovan is here to see you." Thierry informed Marcel.

He ordered Thierry to leave and asked the warlock inside with a single nod. "There's a big game tonight, are you here to invite me to watch it with you?"

Matt nervously smiled. "I didn't even remember the game…"

"Can I offer you a drink?" Marcel could hear the massive stomping of Matt's heart.

"How about a gig instead?" Matt opened his arms. "I could desperately use one of those."

Marcel had a long look at the boy with hidden hands inside the jacket and awkwardly asking him for money. "My affairs are in order, I don't really need anything magic related right now."

Matt's attire slumped discouraged. "Are you sure that you don't need anything at all? Your red car would look better blue." he tried to joke.

"It's all covered." Marcel had a beer analyzing every gloomy reaction from Matt. "But really Matt, if you need money just ask for it."

"It's a loan that I will pay you back as soon as I can." Matt tried to keep some decorum in his appeal.

Marcel opened a drawer from his desk and took an envelope that he handed to Matt. "That should keep you afloat for a while."

Matt hardly raised his head. "Thank you." he quickly turned away ready to flee.

"Donovan." Marcel demanded that he stayed longer with him.

Matt pressed his lips hating that Marcel as usual wasn't wasting an opportunity.

Marcel smiled at him when Matt turned to face him. "This is obviously a matter to keep between gentlemen so the ladies in your coven don't have to know about it."

"Of course." Matt simply replied.

"I expect the same courtesy if I ever call upon a favor."

For several minutes Matt contemplated leaving the money behind but being evicted was a horrible scenario and he had to think about Vicki as well. "You have my word."

Thierry took Matt's place as the other left the house. "I really don't want to do this but I'm questioning your tactics again. Matt is the weakest link in that coven, why are you recruiting him?"

"Matt is forbidden by nature to harm anyone with his magic, that's the downside of white magic but he is the easiest way to get to the one I really want."

"Katherine?" Now Thierry was truly lost.

"She breathes black arts, that one." Marcel had his drink happy with his ongoing plan. "And Matt is going to help me persuade her to help us."

Now it all became clearer for Thierry and he crossed his arms impressed with his sire.

* * *

Katherine was trying to text Caroline quickly, she was sneaking her way between the crowds of endless people holding a camera and decided that the best way to avoid the tour of the City of the Dead was to take the alley next to Lafayette Cemetery.  
It was perfect and she easily reached the end of that alley and neared the main street that she was aiming at when a couple swiftly showed up in front of her.

She languorously inspected the man in a suit, visibly better looking now that he was up and alive. "My ovaries just did a thing."

"Miss Pierce." Elijah sauntered his charm.

She returned it with a flirty smile. "You decided to stay for a while?"

"My sister enjoys the way the city has developed and wants to enjoy it for an undetermined amount of time."

"I'm a horrible tourist guide." Katherine wasn't happy with the vibe coming from them.

"I want something else." Rebekah smiled in all of her spiteful grace. "I saw how powerful you were when we broke into that safe and Elijah tells me how cooperative you were when he asked for your help, so naturally I thought you could help us further."

"I'm a business woman and Elijah offered me money in exchange for the trip to Virginia to tell you that he was imprisoned by Klaus but this is not sounding like a business proposal at all." Katherine divided her look between Rebekah and Elijah.

"There's a medallion that Niklaus has and that we want to retrieve from him, we are positively sure that he keeps it with him in the house but we could use the help of a witch to find exactly where." Elijah proposed a deal. "If you help us with that, I can make you a very rich woman."

"I am rich." Katherine simply stated.

"Or we try my approach, help us get that medallion back or I break your spine." Rebekah easily dropped the danger card.

Katherine smiled without fear. "You have such beautiful hair Rebekah, I'd hate for you to wake up bald tomorrow."

Rebekah took a step forward but Elijah held her back with a firm hand. "There will be other opportunities for us to work together, I'm sure." he told Katherine.

She went past him without a word or a second thought about it, if it was up to her, she was staying away from this family affair altogether.

* * *

Rebekah arrived to the Pub missing a brother who decided to go home and read, and missing a goal in her life as well, staying in New Orleans was only rewarding if she was granted the chance to mess with Nik's limits in an epic way.  
Unlike Elijah she lacked the total patience to plan a decent revenge attack and she would settle for sticking a knife into Klaus' heart and watch him cringe in pain, over and over.

"How can I help you?" Vicki asked with that usual lack of life in her.

"I love the depressed look, it makes me want to drink massively."

"It's all a selling technique." Vicki faintly smiled.

Rebekah gave the girl a side look. "Are you envisioning all the ways you would like to stab me this instant?"

"Oh yeah." Vicki answered convincingly.

"I would love some strong Gin."

"I'm on it." Vicki left to fix the drink.

While she waited, Rebekah was approached by some sleazy guy trying to hit on her, she reacted by throwing him against the floor which instantly knocked him out.

"Some blokes just don't know when a woman is out of their league."

Rebekah straightened her wavy long hair with a reel towards the young blue-eyed man. "If that's your best try, it's impressively pathetic."

He looked all sorts of repulsed by the suggestion. "I was not attempting to be flirty at all."

"What's your name?"

"They call me Kaleb." he smiled at her.

"You don't sound that at ease with your given name." Rebekah had the strangest prickle inside of her.

His smile turned into a crooked smirk. "You look nice Rebekah."

She opened her mouth a bit just as he walked away from her and she rushed after him to the back alley, she gripped his throat and pushed him against the wall once they were alone.

"I would know that smirk anywhere." she slowly allowed the idea to gain consistency.

"The non-grieving look suits you well sister." he bluntly said.

"But it's not possible." she mumbled.

"This family redefines what's possible every century."

"You died… Nik saw you burn and I held your ashes…"

He picked up keenness. "Are you the one who has my body?"

She started shaking her head. "You're not him, you can't be him. Kol died and you're just doing something to my mind."

He clutched her arms. "I need you to focus Rebekah, where are my ashes?"

"Shut your mouth about that." she yelled at him. "My brother Kol died and I don't know who you are but I'm about to kill you."

"How many times can an Original be killed?" he rolled his eyes.

It was sinister the way everything about him reminded her of Kol but she couldn't understand or explain it at all. "If you are my brother you would know that he once killed 46 people in a tenant building…"

He scolded her. "You know that it was 60 because they missed the ones I drained in the attic."

Rebekah eased her hold around his throat and staggered back. "How…"

He smiled as innocently as she ever knew him from when he was just a secluded boy unable to trust anyone but his family.

"You know that it's me Bekah." he warmly said.

This strange joyful laughter escaped her and she launched her arms around him, keeping him close to her in a tight hug. "You prick, I spent days mourning you."

"Clearly." he sneered.

She ignored his snarky ways and kept on hugging him, she also grinned when he finally hugged her back.

* * *

"Where have you been all day?" Katherine stormed inside of Caroline's bedroom. "Bonnie said that you didn't go to college today."

Caroline avoided direct eye contact and focused on the buttons of her top. "I was with Klaus."

"Are you getting attached Caroline?"

Caroline threw her hands in the air and sat on her bed with a huff. "I don't know Kat, everything is so intense and different when I'm with him."

"He must be  _really_ good."

"It's not just sex anymore." Caroline told her.

Katherine clasped her lips, so it was serious.

 _"Care?"_  Bonnie called from the front door.

"We're in here Bon." Katherine called her to the bedroom.

"Hi." Bonnie had this big smile for them but it faded when her friends greeted her so serious. "Did I miss something in the messages we just exchanged?"

"Caroline is falling in love with her boyfriend of two days." Katherine easily tied all the knots.

"Hey!" Caroline protested. "It's not love…" she grumbled. "And I don't know if I can call a hybrid with 1000 years a  _boyfriend_."

"So it's just physical?" Bonnie asked carefully.

"No…" Caroline grimaced. "It's becoming more than that."

Katherine outlined a heart in the air with her fingers.

Caroline dropped back on her bed facing the ceiling with a loud grunt. "We are so dissimilar." she held her hands apart before joining them. "But at the same time, we are so alike."

Bonnie and Katherine sat on the bed siding her.

"Do you remember that really cool movie we saw last summer, when I had the flu and you all came to the dorm and stayed with me all day?" Bonnie played with Caroline's pillow.

"Prince of Persia, The sands of time?" Caroline recalled the hot main actor.

Bonnie ripped Caroline's pillow apart and started toying with the feathers that she held above the mattress with her magic. "Yes, that's the one. Do you remember the quote that was shown at the end?"

 _"It is said some lives are linked across time, connected by an ancient calling that echoes through the ages."_  It was Katherine who had the quote at the tip of her tongue, when the others looked at her stunned, she shrugged. "I believe in destiny and love."

"The Romani more than anyone." Caroline sighed. "But I'm only 19, how am I supposed to know if what I'm feeling is real or just the afterglow of having really good sex with Klaus?" she exasperated loudly. "Ugh! This is serious, Romani people mate for life once they commit to someone."

"So do wolves." Bonnie added in a small voice.

Caroline glared at her. "You are not helping."

She smiled warmly and left the feathers levitating on top of Caroline's face. "I know." she made a heart with the feathers.

Katherine laughed loving the trick but cunningly turned the feathers into black, enjoying the color thoroughly.

"I have a date tonight." Bonnie pulled the feathers back to her and rested them on the bed.

Caroline propped her body up and rested the weight on her forearms. "Tell us everything."

Bonnie was wearing a beautiful pale pink top with dark Jeans and she started playing with the loose fabric of her top while sharing the news with her friends. "I had a late dinner with Marcel and we talked for hours, then he walked me back to the dorm and we almost kissed…"

Katherine had the loudest sigh in history. "This story is fiddling from the start, I was expecting a detailed report about how good Marcel kisses."

"I might tell you tomorrow, if he tries to kiss me tonight on our official date I won't stop him." Bonnie's confidence showed in her voice.

Caroline twiddled her fingers in the air. "That means that you are the only one without a formal kiss provider." she looked at Katherine.

It appalled Katherine beyond and she fixed her extra-tight top with a puff. "Just because I don't want to."

Bonnie and Caroline laughed with her extreme dismay.

* * *

"Who else knows about this?" Rebekah kept her voice low.

Kol instigated it by inching closer to her. "Marcel, your former everything. He was the one who helped me change bodies before I was tragically murdered."

"I haven't seen Marcel yet." Rebekah enjoyed her Gin with a dreamy smile.

"Before you bolt yourself to that carcass, tell me where I can find mine." Kol eagerly begged for information.

"I would check the safe inside of Nik's Art room." Rebekah suggested, just as Marcel arrived with his usual band.

* * *

"And I thought that the rumors were untrue…" Marcel admired the blonde, unable to stay immune to everything that Rebekah represented in his life.

She pursed her lips with lust and walked slowly to him in a glow that out-shined every girl in the Pub. "Feel free to touch if you don't believe that I'm real."

Marcel vividly laughed. "Little has changed, I see."

Rebekah came to a halt with little space between them. "We now have experience in spades, we should look into it somewhere private and in depth."

"You just arrived and immediately expect me fall right back into your lover web?"

She brought her shoulders together. "Are you going to deny that you still find me irresistible?"

"That was hardly a question." he smiled reminiscent.

She lowered her eyes to his chest. "You haven't changed a bit Marcellus…"

He waited until she haughtily touched him to sternly put an end to her show. "Thankfully I have, I'm not that easily swayed into your scoundrel wishes anymore Rebekah. Not now that I had the years to distance myself and realize that I was nothing but a human pet to the aristocrat family."

"Aren't you being a little harsh?" Rebekah's eyes glistened in menace. "Lack of gratitude is a petty fault in one's personality."

"I know that you are crazy and hard to satisfy but you are my guest now and it's rude to misbehave and cross the host."

Rebekah looked back as Marcel went around her entirely unaffected by her presence and ultimately their history together.

* * *

"Look at you all cocky and master of the land." Kol said near the door that led to the back room in the bar.

"Have you seen Elijah? I have a few words stored just for him."

Kol loudly gasped, mockingly horrified. "Don't tell me you are going to inform Elijah that his hairdo is outdated? He might not take it well."

Marcel smiled with a dry chuckle next.

"I'm not happy Marcel." Kol dropped the mocking act. "I don't see you putting an effort into my claim and time urges. I need my body back before I enjoy having dark hair instead of the flawless chestnut wonder that I always esteemed greatly."

After a brief scan around the bar, Marcel pushed Kol into the back room and plunged a blade into Kol's rib cage, he was incredibly fast and covered Kol's mouth to prevent the tell of his doings; he kept the warlock close to his chest and hissed in his ear. "Here's the thing Kol, you're not Immortal right now and I do have a special blade that prevents witches from using their powers." he twisted the blade immobilizing Kol's frail attempts to fight him. "So this is what we are going to do… I'm going to enjoy a lazy day while I keep thinking about your situation. Feel free to die in the meantime." he took the blade out and left the other bleeding on the ground.

* * *

"Hi Vicki." Caroline tried to be friendly but faced with no reaction whatsoever from the other side, she decided to be concise. "Three Bacardi."

Vicki returned with the drinks and tried to get away fast from the joyful bunch but Katherine was a fast trigger.

"Do you know where your brother is? I expected to see him around."

"Who the hell cares?" Vicki asked nonchalant.

"Put these in Marcel's tab." Caroline picked up her drink and left the counter with the girls.

No one bothered making a comment because there was no point actually, they were used to Vicki's lethargic way of handling life.

"I see that I only pay for the good stuff." Marcel met the girls half way.

"I plan on getting wasted with your money." Caroline assured him.

He smiled but with his gaze was on Bonnie's who sweetly smiled back at him. "I'm taking you to the other side of the levee tonight." he told her.

"To that restaurant that you talked about yesterday?"

"I know that you are going to love it."

"I think that I will."

The awkward and somewhat silly smile they had for each other was the biggest ammunition Caroline and Katherine could have.  
Aware of the smirks going around, Bonnie and Marcel broke away from each other after arranging that he would pick her up at the dorm around 9.

* * *

"Kol?" Rebekah found him in the back room wounded and fed him with her blood but he was not that responsive at first. "Are you going to force me to not mourn you again?"

"Try to call me Kaleb…" he said with his eyes closed.

Finally she was able to smile and carefully helped him sit up. "Who did this to you?"

"Someone who needs to be reminded what a good spectacle is all about."

She recognized his dangerous, wicked side in a set of different eyes and narrowed hers at him. "You have a cheeky plan on the makings."

"But I'm going to need my sister's assistance."

She was enchanted. "It will be just like before."

"It's time that we revive those glorious times again." he groaned upset that his entire left side was aching and that his new shirt was covered in his blood.

* * *

Klaus closed the book as the footsteps grew closer. "It's discourteous to visit without calling."

Elijah didn't go far after he crossed the threshold. "That would give you time to prepare the daggers and the white ash, I beg your pardon but I rather take you off-hand."

"I'm not modest Elijah, I always have a family dagger at hand." Klaus effortlessly smiled and tapped a blade he had on the table.

"I still recall the days you had your heart at the end of your sleeve."

"It's not healthy to clutch to the past, brother."

"You use that term so loosely." Elijah spat.

"You were insufferable during our meeting in Italy, the constant rebuke gets a bit tiring over the centuries so forgive me for finally putting a cork on it."

The rude choice of words wasn't doing wonders to Elijah's mood. "I cared for Celeste, I know that you have no understanding of what love is but her loss lingers with me."

Delectably Klaus showed his dimples. "I haven't wasted more than two seconds caring for anyone, and nothing has brought me more peace than that over 10 centuries."

"What en empty, shallow way to exist Niklaus." Elijah sadly said.

"It's better than living in a box." The younger one defied him.

"We are condemned by you to wooden boxes while your prison is made of iron. I pity you instead of us."

"Klaus?" Josh interrupted them unaware of the family reunion but backed away once he saw Elijah. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that your brother was here."

"It's quite all right, he was on his way out." Klaus dismissed the man in the suit with easiness.

Josh smiled leaving a small package on the coffee table. "I got exactly what you asked for, Caroline is going to love this."

Elijah reached for the package as soon as Josh left them alone and opened the black box to reveal a stunning bracelet made of diamonds. "You are smitten…" he deduced by the extravagant gift.

For the first time during their short conversation Klaus remained silent.

Elijah slowly looked away from the bracelet to Klaus. "Have I been too hasty on my endless knowledge of the great Niklaus Mikaelson who does not care, does not feel and does not… love?"

The way he said that last word made Klaus lick his lips but he stoically remained quiet.

"I look forward to meet Caroline…" he returned the package to the coffee table. "She must possess an outstanding fire if she is able to melt all that iron hardening your selfish heart. I wonder nevertheless if she knows that fire is the way to kill a proper witch."

The shift in Klaus' expression was remarkable and there was nothing but a warrior look and an inner howl as he said goodbye to Elijah, who was smiling all the way to the exit.

* * *

Marcel was speeding to the dorm with a huge grin, tonight everything was going to happen for him and he was confident that he would leave Bonnie impressed with a kiss, after that it was all up to the Gods who should favor him after chasing after Bonnie for so long.  
He planned everything so thoroughly that it was impossible anything went wrong, he dropped his foot down putting some extra speed to the car and it wasn't until he was near the premises of Bonnie's Dorm building that his astute eye caught something in the road, it was dark but clearly he saw something moving at the last second.

* * *

Bonnie felt cold and uncomfortable, she had a horrible headache and tried to situate herself, with a gasp she felt concrete under her and a few seconds were enough to realize she was lying on the road.  
The sound of a car racing and then squirming away just inches before it rammed into her made Bonnie scream and curl up into a ball acting on instinct.

Before she recovered at all from the scare and the loud sound of a car crashing, someone was kneeling close to her and checking for wounds. "Marcel?" she gulped down shaken.

"Are you hurt Bonnie?"

"I don't know how I got here… I was waiting for you in the parking lot and then there was this horrible smell…" she looked at the wrecked car before she settled on Marcel. "You're bleeding." she could only assume he was the one driving, judging by the huge cut on his eyebrow.

He had a smile for her, he almost killed her and she was worried about a cut that would heal in a few minutes, he helped her up restraining from taking her into his arms but the shaking girl was refusing help faster than he could offer it.

Bonnie neared the door he just kicked away from the car. "Who would do this to us?"

That was a hard question to answer because everyone knew he was untouchable and by addition anyone he took under his wing but the swift answer came in the shape of a text message.

"Marcel?" Bonnie noticed how apprehensive he was.

He unlocked his phone to read the message.

**I hope you had a fantastic lazy day. K**

* * *

_"... I swear, that I don't care..."_  Everyone inside the Pub yelled the lyrics.

Including Caroline who was carelessly dancing with Katherine, she wasn't thinking of anything but the way it felt good to be alive, she had her arms in the air and shook her hair like Katherine was doing.  
If a moment was required to describe happiness, this would be it for Caroline, her day was ending as good as it started and when the music changed, her phone vibrated inside of the skinny Jeans.

Seeing his name on the caller ID made Caroline beam and she left to the back alley to answer the call, it was a chilly night so firstly she closed up the Denim jacket and as she about to accept the call a gush of wind went by her.

When a man stopped in front of her holding her phone, she realized he had been the one flashing by her. "That's an important call." she protested.

The man pressed the screen shattering it and killing her phone.

"Hey!" she clasped her teeth mad.

"I need a few seconds of undisturbed attention." he tossed her phone away.

"You have one minute before I kick your ass all the way to the Bayou, start by introducing yourself."

He smiled widely. "My name is Elijah, have you heard of me?"

Her posture changed. "You're Nik's brother."

"I am and you have no notion of how long I've waited for this moment."

She cocked her eyebrow. "I'm flattered but I think that I'm spoken for."

"My family's biggest asset is power, we all possess such rich and unparalleled powers that many feel threatened or envious but this magnitude of power is uncannily our greatest weakness to a fault. During the time we were growing up it brought us closer but what once united us ultimately destroyed us. There's very little left of my original family Caroline, I've lost brothers to death and lost Niklaus to his patronizing and egotistical way of living. He turned blind to things that we were all using to keep some humanity left in us, but that wasn't enough for him, he had to kill what we loved as well."

"Everyone has a different version of Klaus, even Marcel…"

Elijah smiled. "Marcellus was only another casualty to the sadistic games Niklaus enjoys. When he found out that Rebekah and Marcel were in love and having a stifling affair, he offered to turn Marcel if in exchange he rejected Rebekah's love entirely."

Caroline crossed her arms, that had been a detail everyone forgot to tell her.

"He also killed every suitor Rebekah ever had and he was so overbearing and controlling of his own sister that Rebekah finally had enough and left with the intention of forgetting she ever had a family."

"Why did he dagger you?" Caroline cautiously inquired.

"I loved one woman only during all these long years and Niklaus killed her."

"He told me how Celeste was trapped inside of that witch house when a fire started and that she couldn't get away in time."

"Niklaus was the one who set fire to the house." Elijah painfully said. "I was too late to rescue her when I finally arrived there."

"I'm sorry for your loss Elijah." she sincerely said.

He nodded thankful for the kindness oozing from her. "I'm surprised someone as warm as yourself would willing choose to be with someone as cold as my brother."

Curiously, she saw it the other way around. "I know that he's done some really bad things and in different circumstances, I would fight what he is and I would judge him endlessly but you see Elijah, I was raised by vampires and werewolves. Blood doesn't scare me, I just don't like the way it tastes."

"I can sense a lot of good in you Caroline." he sighed. "And because of it I must apologize for what I'm about to do."

Caroline grew stiff. "Do you know what we need? A drink, that always makes things better."

"In over 1000 years, Niklaus has never once hid a conquest from me, his immense ego prevented him from doing so but today he was entirely wordless when I mentioned you. Sadly for you that means something." Elijah flashed grabbing Caroline's neck.

She closed her eyes sending him pain but not the faintest cringe came from him and she looked at him scared.

"Celeste made me a necklace that shields me from direct magic." The silver chain sparkled under his shirt.

But what really frightened Caroline were the black eyes Elijah sauntered as his fangs descended. "Please don't hurt me." she asked with a murmur.

"Niklaus broke this family apart, it's time we all start fighting back with the same conduct." he said before tilting her head and sinking his long fangs into her neck.

Caroline's screams resonated loudly, echoing into the city where she always felt safe.

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

I don't want to change you -  _Damien Rice_

Not afraid -  _Eminem_

It's good to be in love -  _Frou Frou_

Can't rely on you -  _Paloma Faith_

I don't care -  _Cheryl_

Winter song -  _Ronan Keating_


	8. 99 problems

It horribly felt like the right side of her body was shutting down, paralyzed from the pain of Elijah feeding from her.  
The way his fangs were deeply buried in her neck felt like he was about to rip her head off next but the pressure of his hand on her shoulder to keep her in place made her brain work faster.

He was enjoying his meal which repulsed her even more and Caroline used that fuel to focus, the hand that had been trying to push him back moved with a different intent.  
She carefully found an opening on his shirt and grabbed the medallion attached to the necklace around his neck.

Elijah startled her by blocking her actions. "You do not have my permission to touch that." he said with blood dripping from his fangs.  
Caroline looked at the hand holding hers. "Who said you had mine to feed on me?"

"Leave the medallion, I'm asking politely." It was clear that he could break her hand at any second and he closed his hand a tiny harder to prove it.  
Caroline cringed with a soft cry.

Elijah smiled pleased and waited for her to drop the dare but Caroline had other objectives, she wasn't going to yank the necklace from his neck, she was going to access the magic in it.  
He narrowed his eyes a second too late as the underdone sensation hit him hard, he was experiencing pain and snarled at Caroline.

Her breath was a mirror of how hard the spell was but she managed to rig the medallion enough to turn the magic in it against him, it worked enough to put space between them but not enough to bring him to his knees and Caroline's power was wavering as fast as he was regaining his strength.

Elijah's eyes turned to black and before he hurt her again, she used the last borrowed energy in her to press her hand against his chest, with it she sent him flying across the alley.  
Caroline clutched her burning neck and waited, when he smiled, darkly showing her how much he was going to hurt her she gulped down.

Although she didn't take any step back, she still flinched when he flashed straight at her and she expected a lot of blood instead of the huge thud of something stopping him so hard that Elijah was knocked to the ground.  
Caroline slowly looked to her side as Katherine appeared with a hand in the air, she created such a steel wall that Elijah was still shaking his head from the violent impact against it.

"Are you ok?" she asked her friend in a low voice.

"No." Caroline replied. "Make sure you hurt him." she took Katherine's hand.

The other smiled with malice and used Caroline's line of magic, combined it made such a clash that all the lights in the street shattered, when Caroline and Katherine lifted their free hands Elijah was propelled across the alley again but ended up on the street this time around.

He stood up like a terminator, preparing to come back to them when he was hit by a car, the impact ultimately broke his neck and stopped him for a bit.

Caroline squinted. "Was the car your doing?"

"Sadly no." Katherine sighed as an hysterical woman came out of the car.

Caroline moaned dizzy. "Help me get home… before he wakes up for anther round."

* * *

"Caroline?" Bonnie burst into the house running. "Caroline, are you ok?"

"I will be." she answered from the sofa with a calming voice.

Bonnie roughly sat next to Caroline with a trembling lip. "Katherine said that you were hurt by a vampire."

"It had to happen one day, I mean, I live in the city of the dead." she tried to joke a little.

"I can't believe some bloodsucker was stupid enough to do this, who was it?"

"It was Klaus' brother, Elijah. It was kind of a payback for some really dysfunctional family crap that has nothing to do with me. So yeah, he just made it to my  _crappy guys who dress nicely_ list."

"I'm going to kill him." Bonnie hissed resolute.

It triggered a small chuckle from Caroline, Bonnie was so sweet that the expression warmed Caroline more than it brought fear. "I told Kat not to call you because I didn't want to ruin your date."

Bonnie's sigh wasn't exactly one of annoyance for the call but disenchantment on how her night developed as well. "Things didn't exactly take off the way we wanted. I was waiting for Marcel in the parking lot when this really strong odor nauseated me and then everything went black. When I woke up, I was lying in the middle of the road with Marcel's car racing towards my face, if he didn't have vampire senses you would be talking to a ghost."

Caroline took Bonnie's hand with need. "That's not an option, I can't lose any of you."

Warmly Bonnie smiled. "Same goes for you, so I'm going to make this Elijah creep pay for what he did to you."

"He wears a protection medallion and it was really hard for me to use it against him, even Katherine had to access my magic to have enough supremacy over him." Caroline had a small tired breath. "Not to mention that he is an Original vampire so yanking that thing from around his neck is impossible, he's not going to be easy to stop if he decides to come after me again."

"You sound so tired… don't you want to go rest upstairs?"

"Marcel will be knocking on my door soon." she left the empty mug of tea on the coffee table.

"Yes he will but only after he tries to find a new suitable car…" Bonnie playfully frowned. "That might take a while, so I'm making tea for us."

Softly Caroline chuckled, she was appreciative that Bonnie offered to make more tea but she wasn't nearly as excited with the knock on her front door.  
With Bonnie in the kitchen and Katherine nowhere to be found, it was up to her to open the door and she slowly pulled the shawl closer once she saw who was visiting.

"Katherine described your attacker in detail." Klaus' voice lowered in every word that was hard for him to deal with.

She had a look over his shoulder, her friend was pacing in the sidewalk with the phone melted against her ear. "It was a violent first meeting." she steered her eyes back to Klaus, wheezing as she found him within inches from her.

Klaus pulled the shawl down but didn't move her hair to expose her neck, he could smell the dry blood and his hand delved inside the wall of hair. "Elijah did this to you?"

She closed her eyes for a second while his finger trailed the two punctured wounds still far from closing. "It was a message because of Celeste."

He squinted around the same time she took his hand to remove his touch away from her skin. "What was it that he said to you?"

"That you killed those witches on the night you battled Mikael." she tried to read any indication in his face but Klaus coldly held back anything that she could use. "That you pushed him and your sister away and that everything is a twisted game to you."

"Keep in mind that he was daggered for a reason."

Caroline nodded in a slow manner. "I don't want to be in the middle of this grudge that exists between you and Elijah. He has this huge resentment…" she lowered her head, her voice became hoarse. "And while he was talking about you, I had this gut wrenching feeling that I don't know you Nik." she faced him. "I really don't."

The first glimpse of a peeking emotion surfaced and Klaus looked at her disappointed. "Others don't know what you know."

"Maybe, but who is the real Klaus? The one that Marcel looked up to and feared, the one that Elijah deems without salvation or are you the Klaus that I'm close to when we have sex?"

"All this uncertainty resulted from the talk you had with my brother?" he was almost perplexed with her sudden confusion.

"I don't know if I should be mad at him for attacking me or if I should be mad at you for causing it. And I don't know if I can be with someone who makes me feel like that…" she clicked her teeth together.

With that Klaus placed a bigger gap between them and after a moment of silent staring, he turned away.  
Caroline clutched the woolen piece around her shoulders and chest, it shouldn't hurt so much to end something that was born out of a casual sex night but she still closed her front door grimly.

Bonnie waited for her by the sofa with a perceptive smile and a hug that Caroline didn't refuse at all.

* * *

Katherine cursed realizing he wasn't taking her call and not even when she saw his pickup truck things inside of her eased a tiny bit, she rushed to the car and jumped inside spewing her anger instantly. "Where were you? Caroline was attacked and no one knew where you were."

Matt slowly turned the key on the engine so that there was silence inside the car. "Why are you attacking  _me_?"

"Because you are the man in this coven and if we can't trust you to be there, then why the hell are you wearing that ring?"

He stared at her befuddled. "You are the first to refute any help but now you're treating me like the incompetent bodyguard?"

Katherine closed her hands in fists and her eyes in fury. "This should have never happened to Caroline."

"Why don't you just calm down and tell me who did this to her? I'm having a hard time believing someone from Marcel's crew has such a suicidal wish."

She harshly breathed in before she faced him. "It was Elijah Mikaelson…"

"The man  _you_ set free?" he shouted at her.

Now that the roles were reversed, she just clasped her lips to keep her answer inside.

Matt threw his head back with a loud rumble. "Damn it Kat! You caused all this."

"I didn't know that he would hurt Caroline." she answered between teeth and opened the door.

When she slammed the door on him, Matt rapidly left his seat and went after her. "You never think of the consequences Katherine." he accused her. "And instead of facing what you did wrong, you act like a rabid dog with no control." he tried to catch up to her but she was strutting away fast.

Katherine wasn't stopping to be trailed on such public ways.

But Matt didn't felt like giving up. "Just for once, you could stop being such a hardhearted bitch and admit that you're just at a complete loss because our best friend could have died after you acted without thinking."

Katherine slowed down her fast walk and then came to a complete halt, she didn't talk, only stood there facing away from him.

Matt neared her, once he was standing in front of her he was struck with the look on her face. "This is that moment when you tell me that I'm being melodramatic and harsh because there was no way you could have guessed what he was going to do."

"Stop being such a girl Matty." she faintly smiled.

His chuckle was big and he motioned to circle his arms around her.

"If you hug me, I will break your arms." she fiercely warned him.

"I'll risk it." he widely smiled taking his chances.

Inside of a caring hold, Katherine loosened up and rested her forehead against his chest.

* * *

"Do you need anything else Klaus?" Josh timidly asked, when he didn't obtain an answer, he decided to leave Klaus alone.

Klaus wasn't even bothering with a glass, he was drinking from the bottle and standing in front of the fire, he was also staring at the bracelet he got for her.

He ran his thumb over the diamonds with the painful truth rising inside of him, he thought that she would be different, that his past wouldn't reign over what he so genuinely started with her.  
Klaus closed his hand around the expensive bracelet, the diamonds felt cold, just like he felt tonight without her.

* * *

Caroline curled up in bed, she snuggled her teddy bear closer to her face, the fluffy sensation of it was a poor replacement for the smoothness of Klaus' chest and she huffed covering her head with the covers, she was cold and she missed his heat, as well as the weight of his body outlining hers.

* * *

Bonnie stepped outside for some fresh air, it was a such a beautiful night with a veil of stars above and the most gentle breeze, if it wasn't for all the awful events, it was the perfect night to have a date with Marcel.  
And it left her smiling that he arrived just as she was thinking about him.

After Marcel, four other vampires left the black SUV and dispersed around the house upon his silent order.

"How is she?" Marcel's worry echoed deeply in his voice.

"She's sleeping now and we're all staying with her tonight." Bonnie's characteristic warm smile was there for him.

"I'm leaving a little extra insurance outside as well."

"I think that she would be happy to see you." Bonnie hinted on that soft place in him, she was happy to see him as well.

"I can't stay." his smile reached his eyes. "I'm organizing something that will make her happier."

Suddenly Bonnie wasn't as comfortable as before. "Are you going to confront Elijah tonight? I know that you're angry, we all are but he can't be killed and he could really hurt you."

The subtle way she inched closer to Marcel and the straining voice were enough for him to take it as worry and he locked her face between his hands. "Hey… I still have a little good sense left in me."

"Is that what you want me to tell Caroline when she wakes up?"

His thumbs gently stroked her cheeks. "Tell her that I'm hosting a lavish party tomorrow at my house."

"A party?" her eyes dropped to his lips.

"A Founders party like there is no memory of it in Louisiana."

"Am I invited?" she slowly lifted her stare away from his lips.

"You have a special space reserved at my house." he dazed her with a perfect white smile.

"You know… I had really high expectations about tonight."

"I know that you would have loved that restaurant on the other side of the bridge."

"Our dinner was ruined but we shouldn't let them ruin our night…" she encouraged him.

Marcel's hold on her face was careful, stating how precious she was to him and without hurry he leaned in for a kiss, Bonnie closed her eyes before he rested his lips against hers.  
The kiss was sweet and he only moved to her lower lip when she kissed him back; Bonnie laced her arms around his neck, stood on her toes and pressed his lips with will.

* * *

The morning came as bright and sparkling as the night had ended and Marcel tried the new suit with a beaming smile. "You've outdid yourself Luca."

The old vampire smiled content with his work. "I've dressed all the great names and apart from Capone, you are probably the one who looks better in a dark blue suit."

Marcel laughed richly. "That's always good for the ego." he had another long look at the mirror. "But I'm missing a tie."

The man handed him one of the ties he had chosen for him. "This almost looks irrelevant considering how big is your smile this morning."

Before Marcel left the grin on his lips to answer Luca, Kol joined them and sat on the small settee with a smile.

"It must be from all that kissing under the stars last night." he smirked at Marcel.

Marcel nodded at Luca asking for privacy. "I didn't see you there…" he told the man with his arms stretched out over the settee.

"I don't blame you." Kol lifted his hands a bit from the settee. "Bonnie appears to be a glorious kisser."

Marcel stepped down from the small stand in front of the mirror. "Why are you still alive?"

"I had a little help, the same that left your girl at the mercy of your fast instincts behind the wheel." Kol carelessly stood from the settee. "Don't underestimate me Marcel, I once drained an entire congregation when in reality I only wanted to kill one girl…" he came closer to Marcel with a dark smile. "When I make a point, I make sure it's irrefutable."

"Keep your distance from Bonnie, I will get your ashes back before the full moon."

Kol walked away with a smile that wasn't entirely compliant.

* * *

Caroline cuddled her teddy bear closer during those seconds that took her to wake up completely, when she lifted her eyelids she found Bonnie sleeping on her right side so she turned to the other side of the bed.  
Only to find Katherine curling up on her left side, with a suspicious frown she lifted her head and found Matt uncomfortably sleeping on a chair.

"Seriously? It was only a vampire bite, it's not like I was dying."

Her complain woke everyone up and Matt smiled before cringing with a serious neck pain.

"Are you feeling better?" Bonnie asked hopeful.

Caroline felt her neck. "It stings a bit but today is a new day and I really feel spoiled right now." she looked at Katherine before circling an arm around each friend and cuddling them close. "And blessed."

"I think this is the stuff that the other guys at college want me to take pictures of." Matt grumbled.

A bunch of pillows flew in his direction but one hit him right in the middle of his face, he could hear Caroline's giggle behind the precise hit.

"Marcel was here last night after you fell asleep Care and he invited us all to a party tonight, he decided to bring back an old tradition so he's celebrating Founders Day." Bonnie informed the group.

"That used to be my favorite party when I was younger." Caroline sat on the bed excited.

"But I thought that the Elder sisters banned it because they felt outraged that Marcel always forgot to include the witches during the festivities." Katherine wasn't sure about the volatile circumstances around it all.

"Marcel plans on getting everyone together under the same roof for one night." Bonnie actually sounded casual about it.

"Is anyone else having some major Red Wedding vibes or is it just me?" Matt asked worried.

"Either way, we are going to have fun." Caroline knelt on her bed. "Big dresses and pretty hair and pink champagne!" she squealed excited. "I need new shoes." she sprinted to get out of bed.

The others chuckled but momentarily all shared the same worry.

"I don't have anything good to wear." Matt worried about the lack of money to buy a new suit.

"Marcel left an open tab at Luca's." Bonnie grinned.

Caroline moaned loudly. "Oh my God… an open tab on heaven."

"I'm not wasting another second." Katherine was already grabbing her boots.

As Matt watched the agitation his worry changed. "I'm not sure I want to spend an entire morning around three girls trying everything in the store…"

Katherine skillfully stole his phone from the pocket of his coat.

"Hey!" he objected.

"I'm confiscating your phone because we will be on our underwear a lot."

He pointed at her with half-closed eyes. "And that makes me so incredibly uncomfortable."

Caroline stood before him with a tilted head. "I like seeing you in your underwear, no matter how bulky you get with time, all I see is the chubby guy with brasses trying out for the Football team."

Matt pushed the hood of her sweater up and covered her head entirely. "That's not funny at all, miss  _I never needed brasses_."

Caroline laughed fighting with him and the hood. "My crooked tooth disagrees with you."

"I think it's adorable."

Caroline finally won the fight and looked at him with a big smile.

"Are you really ok there, Carebear?" he sweetly asked her.

"It was the first time that someone broke inside my gold cage and it scares me that I've lived all my life protected by Marcel and that I took it for granted, that I even became cocky because of it."

"Care… people don't mess with you because they are scared Marcel will kill them if they do, they don't mess with you because they respect you. You have a place in this community that no one has, not even Marcel."

"Don't tell him that." she tried to sound amused although his words were imperative.

"Are you really scared of what happened or are you just scared of what you're feeling for Klaus and how that's all changing your life?"

Her big eyes stared at him surprised with his wisdom and Matt responded by gently running his knuckles along her chin.

"Love is supposed to scare the hell out of you or you're not doing it right." he told her.

"When it was just sex, it was easy…" Caroline confessed.

Matt winced. "Can you discuss the sex part with Bonnie? I don't want to imagine you under Klaus." he closed his eyes.

"I like being on top." she playfully informed him.

He pulled the hood over her head again.

"We are missing out a world of Lace and Satin right now." Katherine peeked inside the bedroom with urgency.

Caroline and Matt looked at the door with a quiet laugh.

* * *

Klaus had the smallest glance at the door as the dapper older version of the family appeared with stillness. "Be quiet my heart, my date has arrived." he turned to his brother. "You are looking searing as ever, sweetheart."

Elijah's reaction came slowly, he held a look with Klaus before he spoke. "The invitation took me by surprise."

"We are all gathered in the city and Marcel is hosting a party for us, I see no reason why we should arrive to the Governor's house separately." he smiled when Rebekah called them from the lobby.

Elijah's tension didn't ease at all when Klaus neared him and he didn't avoid looking for a dagger in Klaus' hand, which amused his brother terribly.

"You look apprehensive Elijah, is everything in order?"

"Perhaps I expected a small reprisal."

Klaus had stopped just next to Elijah and there was nothing but serenity in him as he gripped Elijah's neck and then kissed him on the cheek, however the shock wasn't fully engrossed until Klaus delivered the next line.

"Assail for assail."

"Give me your word that this ends here, that you understand this was necessary to make things even between us." Elijah's words stubbornly felt trapped in his throat.

"Family above all." Klaus replied serious.

Elijah's eyes lightened up with hope. "Forever and always." he said with emotion.

"Let's join our sister, the Mikaelson clan in highly awaited at the party." Klaus warmly smiled and headed for the staircase.

Elijah heard him complimenting Rebekah's beautiful look and shaking took his hand from inside the suit, there was a small blade he had hidden in there, supposedly it belonged once to some powerful sorcerer and it would hurt any immortal creature, tonight however Elijah had no use for it and left it in top of the staircase joining his family elated with the new opportunity for them to start over.

* * *

As any smart guest, the witch entourage arrived when the party was already lively and full, while Katherine sauntered a slick black satin gown with see-through embroidery around her cleavage, her partner Matt was looking pretty hot in his black suit and red shirt.  
For her deepest sorrow the first ones to speak to her were the Deveraux sisters accompanied by Marcel.

"We were just talking about you." Jane-Anne enthusiastically said.

Katherine sighed. "I'm sorry we didn't arrive earlier, I know how the suspense was killing you all but…" she tucked an intricate hairdo that kept all of her long hair caught at the side of her head in a bun. "I wasn't sure what to do with it myself until inspiration hit me."

They all laughed somewhat apologizing her usual sass but Sophie always liked pushing her further and decided to talk only to Matt.

"I hope Katherine doesn't hog you all night, I would love to dance with you."

If Matt tried to talk too much he would stumble on words and blush so he just smiled and simply said. "Sure."

"Where's the rest of your coven?" Jane-Anne asked as a way to interfere with the quick spears that Sophie and Katherine were throwing at each other.

"They were just behind us." Matt tried to keep the conversation going.

It became the toughest mission to carry out because Caroline stole all attention as she arrived in her long strapless cream gown, the satin piece was beaded all around the corset and then fell naturally and loosely bellow her waist, her hair was a thick wall of curls gathered on the right side of her face, keeping the wound on her neck hidden from prying eyes.

If the look captured many eyes and pulled a few murmurs, Marcel was hooked on the other stunning girl wearing a navy long dress, like her friends the gown was made of chiffon but the only beaded piece was a strap that went from her cleavage to the exposed back while the real eye catcher was the other draping sleeve that fell down her naked shoulder.

"I'm caught speechless." Marcel came to the girls with a huge proud grin.

"Thank you for the dresses." Caroline kissed his cheek happy with her look.

"Where did the years go? Not long ago you were dressing your dolls and now you are this beautiful elegant woman…" Marcel seemed lost.

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Don't start with that." she searched for the waiter with the champagne. "I'm going to get a drink." she vacillated before going away. "With alcohol." she teased him.

Marcel chuckled but undeniably his attention was stolen by Bonnie tonight. "You look…" he shook his head a little. "I know that beautiful is the right word to say but you look really hot."

Bonnie softly flirted with him. "That's ok, I was aiming at hot." she had a look at him, extending the compliment.

His chest was inflated by a boastful ego, the color of his suit matched her dress and their bodies were getting closer, he touched her arm with a soft caress and she poked his tie with a smile.

There was a kiss coming but like he did it on purpose, Kol interrupted them while having a drink. "The champagne is superb."

"How did you cross the front gate? I left instructions that you weren't invited." Marcel instantly snapped.

"Her coven was and I'm still part of that." he smiled at Marcel before he looked at Bonnie. "You look conspicuously beautiful darling."

"Thank you Kaleb." she dryly said and then kissed Marcel with gusto.

While the big kiss ensued, Kol enjoyed his drink targeting all the pretty girls at the party.

* * *

"I'm too old for this excitement." The Mayor admitted with a low exhale.

"I don't like this defeated speech." Caroline took two glasses of champagne, keeping one and handing the other to the Mayor. "No one has died so far, the witches are getting along with the vampires and everyone is behaving and carrying out long talks. This might turn out to be a really good night for all of us after all."

The tall dark-skinned older man smiled. "I'm representing the humans and I'm too old to witness your beauty without having major heart issues."

Caroline laughed always so at ease with the familiar man. "This city needs you and it's always good to have you at our parties."

"You've done a wonderful job again tonight, everything looks ideal."

Caroline had a small sip from her drink. "This time, it was all Marcel. I had nothing to do with the party."

The Mayor had a small inquiring look around before lowering his voice. "Then you wouldn't know why we are all really here tonight?"

Caroline was caught off guard and had another bit of her drink.

"We are gathered to rejoice over the creators of this great city." Klaus' charming voice came closer to the pair. "Or so I read in my invitation."

The Mayor was pleased with the arrival and immediately shook hands with him. "Klaus! It's good to see you again, your party was awesome." he dreamily remembered this one particular girl who was at the party.

"It had Caroline's finger behind it all." Klaus said while looking at her.

"She has a natural ability to organize functions, I admit that I often rely on her gift to organize all the Police fairs and charity events that the City Hall has to come up with."

"I'm not surprised." Klaus easily said.

The Mayor nodded. "She was also the one responsible for the Founders Float during Mardi Gras."

Klaus lifted an eyebrow. "I was told at the time that she was tricked into it."

Caroline scolded him in silence.

When the Mayor tried to talk again, Klaus compelled him to leave.

"Was that really necessary?" Caroline didn't put much strength behind the question.

"You look marvelous tonight." he shot back with easiness.

She wasn't indifferent to the dark suit with a black tie and shirt. "You're perfect."

"May I ask you to save a dance for me?"

Caroline saw Rebekah fixated on them from across the big hall. "I already felt the love from your brother, I don't want to end my night with a broken neck because your sister doesn't like your dance partner."

He held her hand when she brushed away from him. "Caroline, this is an important night. Alliances will be made tonight."

"I don't want to know about that..." she held a look with him by the corner of her eye. "And I need time to think about the rest."

"I don't wait for anyone." he dropped at the same time he let go of her hand. "And I still have a curse to break."

She faced him without caring about who was watching them. "I'm sorry if this turned out personal for me along the way."

He opened his mouth to allow a gasp but not to speak and she didn't wait for him either, she went to greet another guest decided to ignore him for the rest of the night.

* * *

Katherine's taste in art wasn't that developed but she still found the painting ugly, so ugly that she stared at it for the longest minute wondering why Marcel spent any money on a bunch of girls dressed as ballerinas.

"What a delight, Marcel has one of the rare works of Degas." Elijah said astounded.

"It reminds me of you." Katherine hated both with passion.

"Miss Pierce, I owe you an apology for what you witnessed last night."

Her chin dropped in stun. "Are you high?"

He pressed his chest honorably. "I was however blind by rage yesterday and Caroline was caught at the end of my short temper. I'm deeply ashamed by that."

"You are so ashamed that you are apologizing to me instead of her?"

"We have a previous acquaintance, furthermore I'm afraid Caroline will be reasonably unwilling to listen to my reasons behind my recent actions."

"I heard about you before…" Katherine started a bit evocative. "They said how handsome and noble you were. How you had all these high morals and that you would only behead someone when justified." she licked her red lips. "The accounts left out how much of a fraud you are. To me now you are just a coward, who hurts a girl just to get back at his brother."

She left to another room and Elijah intended on following her quickly but Caroline cut him off.

He pressed his lips looking for courage at first, then he gambled. "Caroline, I was hoping you would accept my apologies."

Caroline threw the remaining champagne left in her glass at his face. "Keep hoping." she left him with a dripping face and a damaged character.

* * *

Her drink was almost over and while she pondered about another drink, she found herself glued to what was happening across the room where Marcel was.  
He was having a big talk with a group of important people, all strategically placed in the society and each representing an elite faction.

"If you were to ask me…" Kol approached in his ever snake ways. "You should be there, right in the middle of all the scheming and next to your new… man." he smiled at her.

"I think it's obvious Kaleb that I didn't ask you anything."

He snatched two drinks from the passing waiter and replaced her empty glass with a new beverage. "I've heard your name being repeated quite a bit during many of the conversations happening tonight and surprisingly not many of them were because of your new public status with Marcel."

"My ancestors were part of the Founders…" she hesitated not sure if she ever told him about her family history before.

"One of your great-great... something, was the Mayor Marcel chose to replace the Governor, the former owner of this house." Kol had done his research.

"My family line was deeply rooted to the highest ranks in this city, until my parents died and there was no one to follow that. My grandmother Sheila wanted nothing to do with politics so…" she smiled with sadness. "I'm here now on this part of the room while the men discuss our supernatural future over there."

Kol squinted as she left his side. "From a legacy view, this house belongs to you." he followed her to the balcony. "Not to mention that you should have a saying as part of one of the most cohesive covens in here."

"I'm black, I'm a woman and I'm a witch but not a coven leader. What could possibly be against me?"

He answered the fire in her eyes with a genuine captivated smile. "From where I'm standing, I only see Marcel's name."

She reluctantly laughed. "You are being jealous Kaleb. If you weren't, you would see that it's not a bad place tonight to stand behind the King."

Kol had rested his drink on the ground and taken his jacket off, he smoothly covered her cold shoulders with it and smiled when she anxiously responded to it. "I never understood a man who stubbornly refuses to see the value of a powerful woman." he exhaled with a shake of his head. "Even Klaus is drawn to Caroline like a blind man after sight but Marcel's egotism continues to be his downfall, your place is not behind the King but next to him."

Bonnie held his jacket with confusion running wildly across her face. "How well do you know Marcel?"

"He spent his night talking to every irrelevant suit and tie in the city instead of introducing you."

"Everyone knows me." she easily smiled this time. "I'm the girl you dumped."

And it was his time to laugh without breaking eye contact. "You have a nasty sharp little tongue, darling."

With that, Bonnie burst into laughter and for a while they were wrapped in the first easy moment between them since he returned, they only looked away from each other when Rebekah cunningly found her way to them.

"I think we are yet to be introduced." Rebekah eyed Bonnie with superiority oozing from every pore.

"I know who you are." Bonnie was guarded with her words.

"My family is illustrious." Rebekah kept her high rank.

"Are you enjoying your party?" Bonnie kept an amiable tone.

"My family is finally reunited under the same roof without attempting to murder one another, I think it's a good night for us."

"If only you weren't missing a sibling and it would be a perfect night like no other." Kol said only to see the flick of change in Rebekah's eyes.

"Do you know anything about him?" Bonnie asked him intrigued.

"Only that he was a roguishly handsome fella." Kol answered wound up for the chance to talk about himself.

"I feel sorry for him." Bonnie mused.

Kol was horror-struck with the dreadful comment to celebrate his memory. "I heard he lived well before he was murdered."

Bonnie looked into the sparkling drink in her hand. "Whenever Marcel gushes about the Mikaelsons he never talks about Kol and the little I know about him is that he chose to live apart from his eternal family." she shrugged looking up at the duo in front of her. "I think that he was just lonely."

"He was legendary for the lustful life that he led."

Bonnie looked at him with an unconcealed sorrowfulness. "He was turned into something that he probably never wanted to be and he was stuck with a family he didn't identify with or else he wouldn't choose to be away from them all the time."

Rebekah released this sound that was surely meant to be a sigh but came out as a crass snarl. "He was very loved by all of us."

Bonnie made sure Rebekah noticed how she was judging the extravagant red dress that she was wearing. "He died less than six months ago, right? And tonight everyone is drinking and talking about the ones who preceded everything in this place that we call home, yet I haven't seen any of you speak of Kol or how import ant he was to any of you." she handed the jacket back to the man she still was convinced to be Kaleb. "I don't know… but I just thought that losing a brother would be a scar that would take a little more than just a few months to heal."

Rebekah gasped ultimately shocked. "Tell me that the plan to kill her tonight is still on point." she hissed while Bonnie went back to the party.

Kol didn't answer right away but when Rebekah looked at him fuming, he smiled. "A big death to kill Marcel's gala."

She moaned satisfied. "I will make sure it's a scandalous show."

* * *

Elijah folded his soaking handkerchief, he just finished cleaning his face when Marcel arrived with his beautiful date.  
Marcel exchanged an amused look with Klaus knowing that Caroline was the one who left Elijah with a dent on his immaculate appearance.

"Do you have a minute? I would like to have a word with you." Bonnie was cordial with her request.

"Will you leave your champagne behind?" Elijah grunted.

Bonnie showed her free hands. "There's nothing concealed in here."

Elijah glanced at Klaus wondering if he was accompanying them.

"I have an important dance to attend." Klaus chose to stay behind.

* * *

Caroline and the others clapped as the song ended, the best thing about these Grand Balls were the classic dances and she was a big fan of the waltz, naturally she didn't refuse the request from her partner to another dance, she didn't really know the guy but that wasn't important, all she wanted was to dance.  
She prepared to take his hand and to fly across the floor with him when Klaus tapped the guy's shoulder.

"Find another partner." he compelled the idiotic human to go away.

Caroline's posture slumped, she wasn't ready to dance with Klaus but he had nothing but dimples and a stretched out hand for her to take.  
Without enthusiasm she placed her delicate hand on his big palm, he admired the stunning ring bracelet chain that she was wearing.

"That looks far more attractive than the bracelet I had for you." he said whilst pulling her closer to him.

"You bought me a gift?" she asked in a low voice.

"I wanted to make you smile." he naturally answered.

"That's all you've done tonight with your brother and sister." that entire sting inside of her came out blazing in her voice.

He lowered his hand down her back. "I would've traded it all for a genuine smile from you."

She scoffed him with a slight turn of her face but Klaus pinned her closer to him. "You are disregarding your carriage." she callously said.

"And you are dismissing my affection."

Caroline took her time looking at him, he sounded deeply wounded over that. "I don't know if I want to accept anything from you anymore. Elijah said that you turned Marcel after making him choose between his love for Rebekah and his will to be turned."

Wretchedly Klaus managed to smile. "Did he really? I suppose he left very little out and I can vouch for everything he said I did, because I did it all. But that meant very little when we were together love, when I was giving you so much pleasure that you couldn't even recall your own name, you couldn't be bothered with my murder portfolio."

Caroline tried pulling away from him but he ruthlessly locked her inside of an unbreakable hold, the dance was still going but she was too dizzy to know her steps and simply went where his body led her. "I'm scared of you now and I'm scared of your crazy family." she wasn't shaking but her voice was cracking.

"Do you want to know what it's like to be indisputably scared?" his arm around her was forceful but his eyes were two pools of emotion. "I've existed for so long that time lost meaning over the centuries and every day became a mundane repetition, yet for the last week I've done nothing but count the hours hoping that night comes quickly so I can see you again and then count the minutes, hating the dawn that will you take you away from me." he broke away hastily.

Caroline staggered out of breath and balance, left in the middle of a dancing frenzy that meant nothing to her now.

* * *

"This is about your friend." Elijah guessed the reason behind the long walk in the garden.

"I have a proposition for you." Bonnie clearly didn't want to waste time. "I'm driven by Grey magic which means that I'm in the middle of everything. If I had to easily explain it, grey magic is the balance between dark and light, between everything that is alive and everything that is dead."

Elijah's eyes widened a bit. "There are very few who master that sort of magic."

"It comes naturally to me and I was once told by an Elder that I'm one of the few people in the world who can see those who crossed the veil."

He halted entirely, suspicious of her. "I don't mean to offend you but I am skeptical."

"Caroline and the others in my coven are my only family. I know how much you cherish yours and we can have this conversation as an older sibling to another. There's nothing we wouldn't do to keep our families safe."

He quietly nodded at her.

"If I give you a chance to say goodbye to Celeste, do you promise to leave Caroline alone?"

Elijah gulped down.

"I can summon Celeste, I can talk to her and say whatever is it that you never had the chance to tell her before she died and I can tell you whatever message she has for you but in exchange, you promise me that you will stay away from my coven." Bonnie fiercely stated the terms of her deal.

"What do you need?" Elijah cautiously asked.

"Something that has Celeste's essence."

He quietly laughed. "I'm not that credulous Miss Bennett."

Bonnie reached out for his hand. "Marcel told me about your gift." she rested his hand against her chest. "What do you feel? Am I trying to trick you?"

He felt nothing but goodness and trust coming from her. "All right then." he retrieved his hand back and then the necklace around his neck and with a slow reel he handed it to her.

Once with the medallion secure, Bonnie yanked the bracelet around her wrist, the one she used as a charm to keep her real thoughts and feelings away from Elijah's gift to sense them. "He's all yours Marcel." she called the other away from the shadows.

Elijah growled ready to battle and as Bonnie took a step back, Marcel and Thierry flung at Elijah, taking him down.  
With raging strength Elijah pushed Thierry away and the vampire only stopped in the air when he crashed against a tree, next was Marcel; although he gave a good resistance he was no match to Elijah and the titan fight left Marcel gushing blood on the ground.

Elijah straightened his hair and tilted his head, Bonnie was mumbling a quiet mantra. "If you hand me that talisman back, I will keep your head intact." his good will would only go as far, he was still going to punish her for the little stunt.

Bonnie finished her mantra with a big breath, before Elijah flashed she threw the medallion in the air setting it on fire and destroying it.

"No." Elijah snarled with dark veins gathering around his eyes.

Bonnie looked at Marcel wondering if they could survive Elijah; as the rampant monster flew towards her, she froze unable to think of a spell to hurt him, surprisingly though she barely felt his touch around her neck as something took him far away from her, because Marcel was still standing up she knew it was the other accomplice of their plot for tonight.

Elijah rasped for air, his blood started drying in his veins and he looked down on the dagger lodged perfectly in his heart. "You gave me your word…" he murmured to the traitor.

Klaus gripped his shoulder and tugged him closer, the dagger went deeper with the movement and he unemotionally spoke near Elijah's ear. "I've renounced this family a century ago and if I hadn't made it clearer before, Caroline is not be touched." he dropped the desiccated corpse on the ground.

Marcel took a shaking Bonnie away while the Deveraux sisters claimed possession over Elijah's body.

"You've kept your promise like Marcel guaranteed you would." Sophie handed an envelope to Klaus.

"And you've kept yours." Klaus opened the envelope, a huge sparkling diamond filled his hand.

"He hurt one of ours and we will keep him because of that." Jane-Anne warned Klaus about the aspects of their deal.

"Keep him for as long as you wish." Klaus had what he wanted and he didn't look back as he left with the Hope Diamond in his pocket.

* * *

"I'm going to get you something to drink." Marcel brushed Bonnie's cheek before disappearing into the busy party.

She stayed in the balcony, pacing and trying to keep warm by stroking her arms, she should have suspected the sudden gush of wind but it wasn't until she was shocking for air that she realized it was Rebekah trying to kill her.

"I was going to slit your throat and leave you here to bleed on the balcony but your little scheming move to overthrown my brother Elijah ticked me off." Rebekah closed her hand harder around Bonnie's neck, crushing her throat with power. "Naturally, good old asphyxiation will have to do."

Bonnie rolled her eyes suffocating on air that wasn't reaching her at all and felt the taste of death before Rebekah's head was turned backwards with a snap, her hand went limp allowing Bonnie to cough for precious air.

Between straining coughs and gushes, Bonnie looked for the author of her rescue staring at him in disbelief. "Kaleb?"

He said nothing, not even when Bonnie pounced at him, throwing her arms around his neck, however he did hug her back when Marcel reached the balcony.  
His eyes went from the momentarily dead Original to the one Bonnie was latching on to in appreciation.

* * *

Caroline didn't need an introduction, nevertheless her voice echoed loudly through his house. "Klaus?" __  
  
Instead of being troubled by the yells, his feelings were much different, her voice brought life to his dark and inert home and he remained as he was, facing the fire in the mantel while he waited for her to bring her light to him.  
The loudest deep breath in history also told him that she was bringing a lot of rage with her.

"Klaus?"

He smiled noticing how she was trying to fit as much restrain into her voice as it was possible for her. "Yes, sweetheart?" he slowly turned to her.

"The Elder sisters left the party with a coffin and after Bonnie stopped shaking, she told me about the deranged plan that you came up with along with Marcel."

Klaus carelessly took his drink to his lips without saying a word about the deeds.

"Did you really trade your brother for a diamond?" she wasn't near incredulous as she was pissed. "And you kept all this from me?"

"Which one of those inquires enrages you more? I would loathe to be kept in the dark."

The slow burn finally produced an effect, she cut him off for one day and he countered in the same currency, only that Klaus had a million things happening at the same time.  
And yes, she hated not being part of it but her head was in a jumble not just because of that.

"All night I watched you being charming and nice to your brother and sister and then out of nowhere you turn Elijah over to the witches."

Klaus neared her with calm. "It didn't cross my mind to give Elijah the keys of the city after what he did to you."

"I don't know if I believe you, not after what Elijah told me and because tonight you walked away with something else you wanted besides revenge."

His calmness faded and he hinted on how heated he was becoming. "What do you want from me Caroline? I tried getting you updated on the plan and you told me that you didn't care for it, I wanted you to be by my side and you wanted  _time._ " he growled.

"I want to know who you are Klaus before I even think about coming out as queen of hell." she snapped raising her voice.

He clasped his lips enervated and for her own good, he took a few steps away from her. "You don't want to see that side of me."

"How can you say that to me?" she closed the space between them. "You were a stranger when I took you into my home and I still feel that you are a stranger to me except when we have sex. The only time you let me in is when  _you_ can't remember who you are after all that dirty sex that we have." she screamed in his face.

"What do you want to know exactly?" he raged back.

"Everything!" she yelled.

Klaus dropped the glass and took her arms violently, his voice was harsh as well. "Do you want to know in detail how I killed all of Rebekah's suitors? Is that what you want to know? Well, I pushed a few over the Governor's balcony or challenged them into duels just for my amusement, but one in particular, I pinned him to the wall with a sword." he gripped her arms harder. "I've killed in ways that you can't even imagine Caroline, I've enjoyed torturing those who decided not to take my side, and those who have crossed me, have not lived long enough to regret it. And I watched a hundred witches burn while I had a bottle of Bourbon."

Caroline's tears filled her eyes. "Why did you kill Celeste?"

Klaus' jaw tensed harder. "I wanted to prove to Elijah that he was a fool for having such a weakness."

"Who is the fool now?" Caroline whispered with a tear running down her ivory cheek.

Softly he gasped opening his hands to release her.  
Caroline grabbed the side of her long dress and turned away but she didn't make it far before his body was glued to her back, his arm was around her and his scruffy cheek was scratching hers, and through it all Caroline hated just how much her body craved for that, how right it felt to be one with him.

"Why are you turning your back on me?" he brushed her cheek with his lips, breathing her unique scent.

Caroline's hand mapped his arm around her waist, when she reached his hand, she freed herself from his clasp. "Because I'm falling in love with you Klaus." she gathered all of her force and walked away from him.

* * *

Elijah opened his eyes slowly, the cold was dissipating and the blood returning to normal inside of his veins, he touched his chest missing a dagger and sat up inside of the coffin.

Marcel came closer to the casket playing with the dagger. "What did I tell you? I knew that Klaus would turn on you."

Sadly Elijah had hoped that Marcel was wrong.

Marcel plunged the dagger into the wood and smiled at his new ally. "Now, are you going to help me kill him or not?"

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Sad -  _Maroon 5  
_  
Sleepless streets -  _Youngblood Hawke  
_  
Beijing –  _Sequin  
_  
Stars -  _Grace Potter And The Nocturnals_

Devil pray –  _Madonna_

Run -  _Nicole Scherzinger_


	9. Silver Lining

Elijah remained out of sight in the balcony, he could see and hear what was happening in the courtyard but none of them could see him.

Marcel was arranging something with Thierry and he looked boastful about the news the other arrived with, he finished that conversation with a few orders and went back to where Elijah was.

"You seem secure about this plan." Elijah greeted him with a hand inside the pocket of his noble attire and a quiet reservation.

"Today will only be a warning, the real strike will come when he is expecting it." Marcel handed Elijah a drink.

"You intend to have a faceoff with Niklaus when he sees you coming? That takes some gallantry." Elijah accepted the drink.

"I'm not afraid of anyone." Marcel complacently said. "I will take Klaus down before he messes up with the party that I've been putting together for the last 30 years."

Elijah was still uninformed about that part of the plan and Marcel was too guarded about that to share more than he should at this point. "Did the blood I gave you yesterday guarantee an invitation for that party?"

"That blood was used on another very delicate spell."

"Performed by Caroline?" Elijah noticed the apprehension in Marcel when he mentioned her.

"No. I don't want her near this house while you are here." Marcel was clear with his answer but omitting the bigger details.

Something worthy of value but Elijah had the centuries to perfect his gift. "You are not being truthful."

Marcel dryly sneered. "Was your gift malfunctioning when Klaus said that he would honor the bond that exists between you two?"

"I wanted to believe him." Elijah sadly came true.

"Well I'm still pissed that you attacked my daughter and if you ever touch another golden hair of hers, I will find a way to get my hands on that missing Original stake and I will kill you."

Elijah's lips played with a valiant smile. "Are you really playing a protective role when you make blood deals with the beast that attempted to drain her already?"

"It's called being a Mikaelson and old habits die hard."

"Marcellus…" Elijah quietly had a longer breath. "Where was your family wit when you introduced Caroline to Niklaus? Did you not foresee how easily my brother would be fascinated by such a captivating young woman with a mind of her own and the bravery to be outspoken?"

Marcel gritted his teeth irritated. "I was relying on her personality to turn him down and I still don't know what was it that made her change her mind, because she initially refused to do any spells for him."

"Niklaus has dimples and enchanting eyes, it's been a hassle for centuries now." Elijah joked.

"It's going to be easier for Caroline to stop liking him, if Klaus dies." Marcel suggested a solution to all of his problems.

"How do you deem possible to rule this magical piece of land if you die as well Marcel? Because that's what's going to happen as soon as you kill Niklaus."

Marcel's smile was as big as his personality. "Are you talking about the Original bloodline?"

Another company was about to join them and Elijah recognized the pretty girl from the party once she came inside the room, the way she looked at Marcel and chose to stand by his side was a statement of how close they were and Elijah deduced it wasn't just a simple ally relationship that united them.

"Do you remember Sophie? She gave me your casket after she won it during a Poker game with Klaus." Marcel laughed a little.

"I gave him the Hope Diamond in exchange for your body." Sophie's eyes wandered a bit, Elijah was really good looking when he wasn't desiccated.

"I had no use for the diamond." Marcel laughed louder and narcissistic, enchanted with his own schemes.

"If you would stop admiring yourself in the mirror for one second, I would like to be acquainted with the reason behind your blasé attitude." Elijah demanded at least one answer to his questions.

"I broke the sire bond that linked Marcel to Klaus a long time ago." Sophie claimed attention to herself. "And I've successfully severed any other ties that forced Marcel to stay connected to Klaus."

"Anyone Klaus ever turned, will still die along with him except …" Marcel parted his arms. "Handsome old me and anyone I turned with my blood. Welcome to a new era Elijah." he grinned with arrogance.

* * *

Caroline's notes were flying as fast as she was dealing with her coffee, she still had another hour before her first class started and she was trying to prepare for it with her usual diligence, she only slowed down because Bonnie was calling her.

"Good morning Bon." she lively took the call.

_"I was just checking if you woke up on time for school."_

Caroline rolled her eyes with the tease. "Not only did I wake up early, I also read two chapters of the ever fantastic  _Anatomy of the brain_."

_"That's impressive of you…"_

Caroline motioned the waiter for another cup of café au lait. "You don't sound awed, you sound doubtful."

_"I don't know how you do it… three nights ago you were brutally used as a message and you came back swinging so hard that I'm inclined to call you Doctor Forbes."_

"Marcel's party was a whirlwind affair…" Caroline tried to sound strong.

_"Klaus hasn't called you yet?"_

She didn't expect differently after her disastrous feelings' slip but Caroline kept that to herself. "I could use the change of voice because my ears still hurt from all the talking Marcel did last night over dinner." Bonnie paused on the conversation so Caroline sighed merely to mess with her friend. "If I have to hear one more time how green your eyes are, I'm going to hex him."

Bonnie's laughter was innocently delicious.  _"He was strangely very wordless after you left the restaurant."_

"I know how much he wanted this to happen and for how long he has been waiting for a chance with you but I need to know that you're ok Bonnie."

_"I like him Care but I don't think I'm ready to move as fast as he wants me to… he asked me to go back to his house last night after dinner and I cut him off before he even formed an entire sentence."_

Caroline smiled, she could imagine how awkwardly Bonnie used college and ran down the street under the stare of a confused and frustrated Marcel, patience sadly wasn't one of his virtues but Caroline knew that Bonnie was perfect to teach him about the importance of waiting.

Finally her coffee refill arrived but Caroline frowned with an inquisitive look at the waiter. "I didn't ask for a beignet."

"The really hot guy in the grey shirt paid for it." The girl pointed at a table behind Caroline.

When she turned, she already expected to see him and the reaction came easily to her. "Take it back, I don't want it." she pushed the plate away and also ended her call with Bonnie.

Caroline closed her books, gathered them in one arm and left the table, she took the coffee with her and an unwanted company as expected.

"I touch a bit of anger in you." Klaus followed her closely.

She didn't stop or look back to answer him. "I didn't want to accept your bribe after two days of absolute silence."

"Many alliances were started during the Founders Party and many meetings followed that as normal procedure."

Caroline chuckled. "I told you that I had feelings for you and you handled that by disappearing for two days, that's normal procedure all right." she spat the words before crossing the street.

He waited for her on the other side, slightly startling her as he stoically stood there. "Should I remind you that you walked away sweetheart, not the reverse way."

Caroline brought her books closer to her chest and effortlessly smiled at him. "And I haven't changed my mind, I will keep the deal we have but I don't need to meet with you before the full moon so let's ignore each other until then."

He didn't move a muscle as she petulantly walked away with her bouncy curls taunting every scrap of his tolerance.

* * *

Kol dropped the stuff that was inside the drawer on top of the bed, it was the last place he had left to look and he went through everything with the same annoyance that had been prickling for the last hour.  
He threw over his shoulder a box that was unfortunately useless to him but when the noise of metal hitting wood didn't come, he turned wondering why it hadn't fell to the ground.

Rebekah had caught it and was now inspecting it. "It's a nice box to keep a heart."

Kol wasn't enthusiastic about the guest during his search work. "You can have this one once I get back to my original body."

Rebekah closed the box with a cluck. "If I kill you now, no one will know that you were alive to begin with and assuming that Marcel will be pleased with the deed, I don't even have to worry about my fickle conscience."

"Scruples apart, I broke your neck because I needed a one-way ticket back to Bonnie's coven."

Rebekah dropped the box on the ground producing a huge thud. "It's sad that I cannot trust any of my brothers, everyone always finds a subplot that wins over our family ties."

Kol had moved on to the closet, he pushed a few empty clothes hangers aside and stared into an empty structure. "You're beginning to grasp for straws Bekah, there's nothing left of this family to savage." he turned to face her. "There's nothing but schemes, treachery and time patching what was once a great bond. Mostly time because that's the one thing we cannot bend on our will and it's working like sand, covering every good memory we ever had of each other. We throw the Mikaelson name like it means something but even the most powerful one of all of us is searching for his real family and I wouldn't be surprised that he soon forgets he was ever one from the dejected lot. I for one cannot wait to get back into my body and leave the sad circus in town."

Rebekah felt the lump in her throat turn into tears she didn't welcome. "I miss what we all used to be. Have you forgotten how united we were and ready to take the world as we pleased?"

"The world isn't enough to harbor all of our egos." Kol had one last look around the wrecked dorm. "There's nothing in here." he left obviously connecting his words to what was now the shambles of his family.

* * *

Bonnie waved at Katherine and Matt from the bench she was occupying, they hadn't reach her yet and already she knew that Matt was giving Katherine a hard time because she was making one of her rare appearances at college.

"I don't like studying." Katherine dropped her bag on the bench next to Bonnie with a big huff. "I was born to marry some Prince from the Emirates and to have a hundred servants pampering me." she dreamily said.

Sadly Matt believed she was utterly convinced of that and sat next to Bonnie with a sigh. "We need to stop delivering papers in her name, she needs to start doing some of her work."

"But I want to stay in her Palace when she marries one of those really rich rulers." Bonnie candidly told him.

Katherine rejoiced in that while Matt rolled his eyes.

Bonnie had a small giggle and while having a look around Campus she spotted someone familiar leaving one of the buildings. "Hey Kaleb!" she called him near them.

"Are we friends with the defector now?" Katherine murmured.

"He saved Bonnie." Matt sounded a bit too happy about the small turning point because he really missed his friend.

"Hello." Kol approached with caution.

"Everyone decided to come back to college today." Bonnie had a slow gaze around her circle of friends.

"And you are so thrilled over that." Katherine triggered entertained with her phone.

"Learning is fun." she stated with a frown.

"It will be fun having my lab partner back." Matt didn't hide his glee for Kaleb's return.

"Actually…" Kol reeled back everyone's expectations for a peaceful day. "There was some agitation in the parking lot, the talk was that someone broke into the dorm that belonged to Monique." Everyone's attention was steered to him and he used that. "Rumor has it that they were looking for something valuable."

"By law, every talisman that belongs to a coven must be handed over to the Elder sisters if that coven ceases to exist." Katherine knew the witch law in New Orleans like no one in the city.

"I'm sure Sophie and Jane-Anne took everything they found." Matt still looked at the others somewhat doubtful. "I mean, it's not like they had that many artifacts…" he stopped his eyes on Katherine.

She silently held a small conversation with him, what was between them was to be kept that way. "How could we possibly know?"

Kol would be all over that if he wasn't fixated on the girl staring at the ground, she was physically here but her stare was miles away and strangely it felt like her entire essence was wandering away as well. "Are you all right?" he leaned over touching her arm.

The gasp came like she was electrocuted by the touch and she jumped on the bench.

"Are you crazy?" Katherine yelled at Kol.

Matt also frowned deeply upset at him but Kol was clueless, it didn't help that Bonnie was shaking like she was violently pulled out of a daydream.

"I know… what they were looking for." Bonnie stood up fast and walked away.

Katherine growled at Kol before she ran after Bonnie and he wasn't on good terms with any of this disorder so he addressed Matt in the same way. "She was in a strange stupor…"

"You know that Bonnie has these vision things and that they show up unannounced but you can't just yank her out of them like that. Those jolts are dangerous for her mind."

Kol had no perception of what Matt was expecting him to say, the kid looked at him like he was suppose to know these things and the truth was that  _he_ was. "I wasn't thinking." Kol put together a lame excuse.

"Dude, I don't know what the hell you're smoking but if you want to win back your place in this coven, you better cut back on that." Matt hissed extremely angry.

Kol squinted as he was left alone, he had forgotten entirely about the wonderful witch weed, alas he had to leave that for later, for now he had a group of lunatics to decipher.

He caught up to the trio in the library, Bonnie was skimming along a row that had seen better days, the books were all worn out and out of place, compared to the rest of the deluxe Tulane library they were obviously the collections no one cared for anymore.  
And it was there, among the endless mandatory English literature books that Bonnie picked one red book, she turned away taking the book with her and Matt followed her with Katherine without asking questions.

Kol truly hated the grey area he was walking but he wasn't about to walk out without answers and he joined the others in the parking lot.

"Wasn't a conspiracy movie once built around a red book?" Matt asked not certain if he was off point.

"You've never read  _Catcher in the Rye,_  Matt?" Katherine asked him.

"Obviously you have, so you can tell me the best quotes later." he joked with her.

While the other two had fun exchanging silly remarks, Kol grew more interested in the girl analyzing every page with care. "Why are you staring at that book?"

Bonnie looked up from the pages to face Kol. "It's a map."

Kol looked down on the book, this was one of those times Elijah would admonish him for calling someone so bluntly crazy but the girl was nuts, which was a pity because she was gorgeous. "Maybe Rebekah Mikaelson left your brain too long without accessing oxygen." he dropped the comment with a fast tongue.

The glares in unison came fast as well.

"I don't know if it's Monique sending me the images but I can feel her magic around us and she's trying to tell us something. I think she tried it once before, when they went missing, I wrote down a number and the location where she was found dead." Bonnie explained.

"Either way…" he deviated from the complex crazy talk and reorganized her focus. "I was expecting something that we could all see."

Bonnie moved her hand across the page, the letters changed and the spell was revealed, the ink changed and formed a map that this time was visible for everyone. "Are you satisfied now?" she asked him wound up.

"I find satisfaction in such mundane things." he smirked.

"We need to go, the spell won't last for long and if Monique's spirit decides to cut me off from her line of magic, we might lose the map and whatever it is that she kept here." Bonnie tapped a small circle on the map.

Katherine unlocked her car and Matt took the passenger seat, Bonnie was used to the back seat but not to the company joining them, she wasn't sure if Katherine was going to complain but the sexy brunette pressed the expensive boot down and drove away with a shrieking sound from the tires, there was no time to lose when a magic item was waiting for them.

* * *

"Tyler?" Caroline yelled into the renovated house, there was no answer and she didn't like that a bit.

Determined she went upstairs to look for him, his phone was disconnected and she hadn't seen him for days but now he wasn't in his new home either, the empty bedroom and the unmade bed she found wasn't that reassuring.

"Where the hell are you Ty?" she took her phone again and tried his number, it was still disconnected and her gut told her that the short stop before college was about to become longer.

She usually didn't go of in a hunch like this but she knew him well and even if Tyler went back to the pack and stayed with them in the Bayou he would have warned her before.

Caroline went into the kitchen to look for a candle, she dropped a few drops of wax on top of one his shirts while performing a location spell, the final figure that resulted from the wax was a place she knew well and Caroline rushed to her car worried about her friend.

* * *

"Are you sure about this Bonnie?" Katherine wasn't exactly stopping to ask but she eased up on the fast race of her car.

Bonnie bit her lip. "I am… ish…" she whispered.

"I'm about to cross the border to the wild nature, you better be sure." she warned with a foul anticipation of how her new boots would be all covered in mud soon.

Bonnie's usual positivism decided to take the day off, the lines in the map were fading away and she was losing her connection to whatever source of magic drove her here. "Maybe we should stop."

"What…" Katherine hadn't done anything but her car started to lose power and she looked at Matt for help.

"Are you out of gas?" he asked the obvious.

"Not even close." she tapped the small square where the pointer hit full.

"It's an uncultivated speculation but perhaps it's something magical." Kol stared at the little button on his door that went down to close his door.

Without notice the book in Bonnie's hands burst into flames, she squealed throwing it on the ground avoiding burning her hands on time, the car was now completely out of Katherine's control and the wheel turned on a small dirt road, it slowly came to a halt right in the middle of it and all the buttons on the doors went up, the doors were open inviting everyone out but naturally all of them felt uneasy about the option.

"Anyone has a gun?" Katherine looked at the duo in the back seat.

"I forgot my blade at the house." Kol checked his pocket upset.

"I was sort of joking…" Katherine frowned.

"Something brought us here and I don't think that it wants us to stay in the car." Bonnie was the first to get out, she wasn't sure which way to go but she chose some random path and started walking.

"We stay together no matter what." Matt united the group.

They all left the car at the same time and went after Bonnie.

"I can't see her…" Katherine complained as soon as they started walking. "She just came this way seconds ago, how could we lose her already?"

"And it's becoming foggy." Matt noticed the white collection gathering around them. "I can't see a thing… can you see anything Kaleb?" he looked back. "Kaleb?"

Katherine looked back as well, there was only Matt with her.

* * *

The yellow tape from the police had been cut already and that only made Caroline lick her lips, this was seriously happening.  
She had one last look at the old spooky church before pushing the iron gate and crossing the entrance to the abandoned cemetery, St. Anne's church was as old as the city and for the longest time it had its private graveyard, now it was just a ghostly place like the mystical church.

Caroline tried to be discrete and ran among the graves trying to reach the church as fast as she could, she was half way there when she spotted two figures coming from the minster and crouched near a big headstone.  
She stayed hidden until the two men went inside the church, clutching to a small kitchen knife in her hand she decisively stood up to go after them, disquieting and out of nowhere Klaus showed up in front of her and before she even made anything out of the startling apparition her hand moved in instinct.

Klaus hissed as the small knife prickled his chest and removed the knife lodged near his heart with a small smirk as he saw how small it was. "That's adorable."

Caroline scolded him. "I came prepared."

His smirk grew and he lifted a huge sword that he brought for battle.

"What are you doing here?" she confronted him upset.

"I reckon the same as you are."

"I came to rescue Tyler, I went by his house and I think that he was taken."

"He hasn't returned my calls for the last few days so I figured that something was wrong, I sent Josh on a tracking mission and he traced him back here." Klaus pointed the sword to the church.

"Who has him?" Caroline couldn't help to think how huge that sword was.

"Marcel's flock."

She shook her head. "He wouldn't do this to Tyler…"

"He left bear traps for the wolves in the woods, I think that he doesn't care for your liking for them enough to miss the chance of getting rid of Tyler."

As Caroline was about to organize a huge defense, Thierry arrived to the scene; Klaus took Caroline with him as he flashed to a bigger gravestone that shielded them from the other vampire's line of sight.

She was dizzy from the ride but quickly concentrated on what was important. "Maybe Thierry is acting alone."

"I could ask him before I cut his head off." Klaus mused.

She forcefully grabbed his shirt. "You are not going to kill anyone, do you hear me?"

"Afraid I lost all my hearing all of a sudden." His eyes glistened with a sparkle of death.

"If they have Tyler, we are going in there and we are freeing him but you are not allowed to go on a killing adventure." she brought her face closer to his to prove a point. "Don't kill anyone."

Klaus roguishly planted a kiss on her lips, it wasn't a  _yes_ , it wasn't a  _no_  and by no means a  _maybe_ , it was just a soft tasting of her lips and he parted from them beaming.

Caroline's shoulders slumped afraid he was ignoring her but she was glued to his back when he left the gravestone and she remained like that until they reached the backdoor.

The softest chuckle was mandatory from Klaus as she tried to peek over his shoulder. "Do you want to take the sword and the lead?"

"We don't have time for dirty talking Nik." she judged him.

"As you wish, Princess." Klaus went in first, he buried the sword on the wooden floor choosing to take the first vampires with a simple twist of their necks.

The church was all filled with candles and Caroline saw Tyler instantly, he was trapped by two ropes that held his arms apart and he was kneeling, his head hanging because he was unconscious.  
Caroline ran to him, the vampires inside the church were all busy trying to attack Klaus and her only obstacle was Thierry that waited for her on the altar, next to Tyler.

She went up the two first steps shaking. "Does Marcel know about this?"

"We knew that it would be hard to keep you away when you found out but now that you are here…" Thierry took a knife from a horde of witch things lying on a stand and cut the rope freeing Tyler's right arm. "Take him with you."

Caroline froze. "That makes very little sense."

"We don't need Tyler anymore." Thierry looked at the man fighting behind her.

"You took Tyler as bait for Klaus?" Things just made no sense to her at this point.

"It wasn't just that." Klaus wasn't fighting anyone at this point, he was surrounded by a small army but he was standing with his arms settled behind his back and a daring smile.

Thierry cut the other rope and Caroline caught Tyler as he fell forward, her friend shown the first signs of life and she tried to use her healing magic for a quick fix, only something enough to give him strength to walk, the real spell would have to be done later.

"You've placed his werewolf side on a dormant state." Klaus said.

Caroline looked at him first, then she faced Thierry shocked. "What did you do?"

"Marcel knows what he's doing." Thierry simply replied to her.

"I'm going to talk to him, this is getting out control." Caroline angrily told Thierry.

The vampire always with a flat hat showed her fangs. "I said that you can take Tyler, so grab your friend and leave Caroline."

"You don't tell me what to do." she struck back.

"Sweetheart…" Klaus sensed the arrival of another large number of vampires, they came out from the sides of the altar where they had been hiding and came down the stairs filling the church entirely. "My car is just across the street." he tossed his keys at her.

She grabbed the keys keeping her eyes on him, leaving was the last she wanted to do but Tyler was weak and she still didn't know what exactly they had done to him.  
Caroline helped him up and then slowly down the stairs, as they went by Klaus she exchanged a last look with him, he looked peaceful and relaxed and he remained silent until he heard her footsteps far away from the church.

Although Klaus was still, the crew around him was itching and twitching their fingers ready to assault him, yet none of them dared to move without Thierry's consent.

"This one is for Diego." he ordered the first strike with a lift of his eyes to one of the men standing behind Klaus.

A blade similar to the one Elijah had left at his house was plunged into the back of Klaus' neck, the pain ran down his spine and Klaus fell to his knees, he tried taking the blade out but his wrist was caught by a few vampires who laced a steel chain around it, they did the same with his other wrist and spread his arms apart keeping him subdued for the moment.

Thierry punched him so hard that his hand was hurting afterwards. "And this one is for Max." he shook his hand.

As the blood of an open cheek fell down to the corner of his mouth, Klaus' eyes turned yellow and he lapped that drop of blood from his lip with his tongue. "Which one is it for killing everyone inside of this church?" Klaus pushed him with a sly smile.

Thierry nodded to the vampire in charge of the blade and Klaus yelled as he turned the weapon buried in the back of the hybrid's neck. "Today is just a lesson in pain, you came to the wrong town Klaus. In here we have shady witches and blades like the one breaking your spine over and over, it was made by Papa Tunde who was a great hater of vampires, may the Devil guard his soul but he left us with an amazing arsenal able to hurt even an Original." Thierry smiled elated.

Klaus wrapped his right hand around the steel rasping on a bigger breath. "I've decided to leave you for last." he informed Thierry with a happy tone about his choice. "And to kill the blade handler first."

Thierry lifted his eyes but it didn't reach the other vampire in time as Klaus suddenly pulled his arm knocking the men holding him down, he grabbed the vampire behind him and pulled him over his shoulder, he laced the steel around the man's neck and broke his neck.  
They tried stopping him from removing the blade from his neck but it was impossible to tame Klaus' wrath, it came out blazing when he pushed the blade up someone's chin.

Thierry flinched with the gruesome sight but they could still hurt him, he grabbed the loose chain and tried holding him back but Klaus was like a raging animal set free.  
He removed hearts easily, snapped necks and was only slowed down because he was shot in the heart with a bullet drenched in wolfsbane.

Seeing that it worked, Thierry took the gun from a dazed vampire and shot Klaus with determination, he emptied the full round of bullets aware that it wouldn't fully stop him but it would be enough to slow him down. "Bring me more bullets." he asked.

The strident sound of glass shattering followed by screams was a confusing answer and Thierry turned around, Caroline was holding her hands in the air after shattering all the windows in the old church, the sun coming in was killing the vampires who didn't have a ring and Thierry felt the wounded monster regaining strength to kill the rest of them.

Caroline plugged the sword from the floor and threw it at Klaus, she barricaded the escape of any vampire by creating a spell to keep them all inside and Klaus took them all out with the sword.  
He pinned the last one to a church bench with the sword and climbed it to jump from one bench to another so he could tackle Thierry before he reached Caroline.

Thierry clasped his eyes in pain while Klaus bit him hard in the shoulder.

He dropped him to the ground and approached Caroline with yellow eyes and blood dripping from his lips. "You wanted to see the real Klaus, love? I present you to him."

Caroline winced as he left the church and she stared at a bloodied massacre.

"What should I tell Marcel?" Thierry used a bench to support himself as he stood up.

Her frenetic eyes went to him. "That I didn't have a choice."

* * *

Kol searched the ruins unsuccessfully, he pushed a piece of debris with his boot angry that his hunt turned out a bust for the second time today.

"You should have left the car sooner." Bonnie stepped out of the fog.

Kol turned his head with livid eyes. "Could you have been this smart?"

Bonnie came up right to his face with fire in her stomach. "I knew that there was something wrong when you said that about the dorm."

"So you faked Monique's message from the afterlife?" he turned to face her completely.

"The book and the car and the map thing…" she shrugged. "All of it. I found what you are looking for desperately, ages ago. When I was preparing Monique's body for the ritual I noticed that she was wearing a unique watch, it looked like a key and I took the watch home with me, after messing with it for a few hours I finally figured it out how it can open the Ascendant."

Kol sighed. "Bonnie darling, I think that you are delightfully turning into a basket of surprises but you might not see another day if you keep crossing me like this."

She stood as a clear representation of who she was, with a bruised neck that she didn't cover at all, army boots that echoed how much of a warrior she was. "What do you want with the Ascendant?"

Kol smiled without showing his dimples, it was a scary smile and he trailed a finger across her chin without being genuine behind the gentle move. "You're an intelligent woman Bonnie, use that and give me what I want without all the daring games."

She was pulled into his clear blue eyes but she had no notion of who was behind them. "I rather destroy the Ascendant."

He hardened his features, his eyes became as cold as the touch mapping her neck. "If you knew what I'm capable of, you wouldn't be so crassly saying such arbitrary things."

Instead of hauling away from him, Bonnie's heat came closer to his chest and she left very little space between them as she rested a hand on his cheek. "You saved me at the party so I know that you still feel something for me."

"That's not why I saved you."

She smiled recalling all the times she caressed him like that and she leaned her head a little to the side reminiscent. "I missed standing this close to you." the thought came out loud.

Kol was unsteady about the way this was all developing but it wasn't too shabby to have a beautiful girl stroking his face and with lips that begged to be kissed. "Are you drifting on purpose?"

She shook her head and her hands slid to meet his, she was smiling while holding his hands. "We used to love doing magic together."

He wanted to jump the gun but he recalled her saying specifically that there hadn't been any sex between them.

Bonnie built a bridged between her magic and his and the fog around them was turned into these small amazing little drops of water that were held above them by magic. "We never cared about power and you used to say that you would never use your magic to hurt someone." she became sad realizing he used to say that about her as well.

"Power can be entertaining." he used his magic to burst all the water above them.

Bonnie shielded with a shriek and a loud laughter. "Kaleb!" she playfully slapped his shoulder.

She had a stunning smile and laughter, and encouraged by the easy instant, he pressed her to him and kissed her without any gentle introductions of any sorts, his tongue invaded her mouth before she even assimilated that his lips were touching hers and although she was slow on rejecting him, she still moved her tongue against his.

Her reason kicked in the second it all felt so good that she wanted to moan and she pushed him away with both of her hands on his chest and slapped him hard across the face. "What the actual f…" she restrained from cursing but she was raging.

He had a big smirk although his cheek was burning.

"When did you learn to kiss like that?" she touched her face to make sure she wasn't blushing.

"I enjoyed that and I could be a tad wrong but I think that you liked it as well." he looked at her with lust.

"Don't ever do that again." Bonnie whispered, she could listen to Katherine and Matt approaching.

"There you are." Katherine complained.

"We didn't find anything." Bonnie headed back to the car fast.

"Ugh, let's go home, this fog is ruining my hair." Katherine groaned.

Matt squinted at Kol, that smile of his was uncanny.

"I think that we're working on our issues rather well." Kol winked at Matt.

Matt felt lost, more than usual at least.

* * *

"I need to heal Tyler." Caroline glanced back to the back seat as Klaus parked the car in his driveway.

"That won't be necessary since I gave him my blood while I was waiting for you in the car." Klaus left the car motioning at Josh to take an unconscious Tyler inside.

Caroline left the car without focus, she kept touching her forehead and then hiding her hands inside of her jacket. "Ok… I guess that will heal him."

"Are you all right Caroline?" Klaus came around to her side.

"Sure Klaus, why do you ask? After all, all I did was help you kill Marcel's crew and betray the man I call a father."

"It's just a name." Klaus coldly said.

She snapped furiously at him. "Marcel is going to kill me because of this, can you grasp that for a second Klaus? Or the fact that betrayal actually means a thing to me?"

"Are you scared or mad at me?"

"Before you arrived to New Orleans, I wasn't forced to make these decisions so right now I'm furious at you." she shouted fearlessly.

"Your immense rage comes from my reluctance to call you after your confession the other night." Klaus poured salt over the open wound.

"You didn't miss the sex enough to call me, that's fine." she dropped viciously trying to sound crude about it.

He breathed in loudly and held her by the arms with vigor. "The sex is extraordinary…" the words hissed like that, through gritted teeth appeared to have such a different meaning. "But it wasn't what I missed."

Caroline's petulant shell cracked enough and she felt herself melting as his touch became smoother as well. "It wasn't?"

One of his hands traveled to her cheek and her skin reacted by burning under his powerful touch, his thumb gracing her face was nothing more than Klaus feeding from her, draining her not of blood but of strength to leave him.

Klaus leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Why did you go back to the church?"  
  
"I couldn't leave you..." she whispered, he smelled like blood but now, so did her. "I'm going to have a shower." she left to his room after brushing her fingertips along his scruff.

* * *

Marcel smashed another bottle against the wall, very little was surviving his fury and a flying chair almost hit Rebekah when she dared to go inside the lion's lair.

"This has Niklaus written all over it." she named the wreck Marcel just made.

"There has to be a way to suppress him." Marcel's yells were echoes of the hell's wrath vibrating in the big house.

"Not even the Four Horsemen would manage that." Rebekah simply said.

The thought played out in his mind. "I'm in the right city to provoke an Apocalypse."

Rebekah moved her head a bit to the side with a side look. "Why do you still have all this anger built up for Nik?"

Marcel snarled. "You should leave."

Rebekah narrowed her eyes, she neared him but when she touched him, Marcel flashed pushing her against the wall and keeping her there with a hand pressing on her throat. "I can take your anger Marcel but only if you tell me why you hate Nik so much."

"He made me choose between us or an eternal life." he maliciously smiled when he spotted the light rising in her eyes. "At least that's what you would like to hear." he tilted his head. "Isn't it Bekah? Wouldn't you love to hear how I hate your brother because he drove us apart?"

Rebekah's pain erupted like his anger, she closed up her features and pushed him away from her. "You're just like him… famished for power and wealth. But do you know what Nik has after centuries of scavenging for anything that gave him supremacy? Nothing!" Rebekah roared in Marcel's face. "He has no family, no friends and no one to sit with him at the table and you may think that you overdid him but everyone who sits with you does it because they are obliged to, not because they care for you."

"I told you to leave." Marcel said slowly.

"I've seen greater empires crumble to ashes and you will not be the exception." Rebekah lastly said.

Marcel kicked the stuff lying on the ground, they were all wrong and he would one day dance on top of all of their graves.

* * *

The hot water did the impossible, it relaxed her enough to stop worrying and then Caroline actually smiled when she found the pink package lying on his bed.  
She covered her legs with the duvet, because she was only wearing one of his shirts the room felt a bit cold but she could see the mantel already harvesting a quiet fire.

One that she related to when Klaus walked in wearing his low-cut Jeans and a chest that wasn't completely dried yet, Caroline wasn't entirely happy that he chose to have a shower in another room but she ate her beignet at least satisfied with the view.  
Klaus picked a random shirt from the closet and ended her glee by covering a long back that she was admiring.

"Tyler is recovering well." he turned to her.

"He told me about the painful enchantment they used on him…" she had another small bite from her snack. "How did you know that they used that specific spell on Tyler?"

Klaus decided on a silver chain necklace for the rest of his night and she could see him going back in time to fetch for a memory she wanted him to share with her as he laced the necklace around his neck.

"Rebekah was beautiful from the day she was born, while growing up every man in the village was enchanted with her and it became a habit for us to fight every scoundrel that wanted to have a horse ride with her." Klaus sat on the bed with a small smile. "But Rebekah enjoyed her adventures more than any of us and during one my father's hunting trips she decided to go over to the waterfall alone…"

Caroline wanted to take his hand but afraid that he might withdraw on the sincere moment, she chose to only snuggle closer to him.

He smiled finding two huge blue eyes pleading him to carry on. "Elijah noticed that she wasn't in the hut but I arrived to the waterfall first." Klaus moved her hair to outline her face with his hand. "She was struggling with one of the men from the village, she told me later that she had been sneaking out to see him every night but nothing ever happened between them until that day. He was trying to undress her and I only remember her screams and how I wanted to make him stop; when Elijah arrived I was still clutching the rock in my hand and Rebekah was too shocked to say a word."

"That's how you triggered your curse?"

Klaus expelled a gush of air loudly, he inched her closer and kissed her forehead. "It was my first kill."

Caroline closed her eyes weighing it up. "How is that related to what happened today to Tyler?"

"Mikael was not happy to know that his least favorite son was on top of it all, a bastard." Klaus lifted his eyebrows with a hint of amusement. "Therefore he took things to all possible extremes, he killed my father and then with the help of Elijah, he strapped me down to a wooden trap like I was an animal and my mother suppressed my werewolf side."

"Wait…" Caroline jolted her head. "Elijah helped Mikael do that to you?"

"Yes. Did he leave that out when he was being pompous about how much of a good brother he was?"

"He was busier sucking my blood." Caroline scrunched her lips goaded. "And why didn't you tell me this sooner? You led me to think that Elijah was some nice guy with iffy morals when he's just a creep that uses his appearance to bait people into thinking that he's one of the good guys."

"I sold him to the witches, which clearly proves that I'm the good guy in the family."

"You're a D-bag with a nice accent!" she huffed.

"I love how verbal you are about everything." he smiled charmed.

She rolled her eyes but he was poking something that was beginning to be a loud thought in the back of her mind. "I don't like how hushed you are about…" she looked up at him without finishing.

"Us?" Klaus locked his clear eyes with hers.

She nodded enjoying how transparent they were sometimes.

"These are still waters that you are stirring up Caroline, there are things that I don't say because I've forgotten how it was to feel them so alive."

Her mouth was dry and when she gulped down, the sound filled the room. "If you could remember how it was to feel…" she licked her arid lips. "What would you say about those feelings that… you possibly have for me?"

His lips stretched into a big smile. "If I was a man to speak of feelings…"

She grazed her lower lip with her teeth. "If… of course."

He sighed with a deep hum. "I would say that this confinement that Marcel formed around you is a crime. This small world that he created for you will never be enough for you love, your light will parch trapped in here and you will die like a hummingbird unable to sing and to fly freely."

"Are you the one who will take me out of here and show me what it's like to be really free?"

Klaus kissed her lips softly. "If you let me sweetheart, I'll show you what a real reign is all about."

"That's a lot of  _ifs_." she huffed again.

His chuckle was sexy and grave, he kissed her lips without hurry, scratching her as his stubble marked her delicate lips, they became red reminding him of blood.  
Her cheeks gained color caused by the heat the kisses brought to her and when she laid on the bed taking him with her, he easily drifted his attention to her neck.

Quietly she moaned but Caroline wanted the weight of his lips against hers again. "Kiss me Nik…" her fingers knotted with his curls.

Klaus pressed her lips with passion, if he was one to speak of the way she made him feel, he would make an ode to the fervor she incited in him, and he would name it obsession.

* * *

Marcel looked calmer now so Aisha, one of his bravest vampires, tried to get any answers from him.

She still kept a safe distance afraid he might kill her if she crossed a line he didn't like. "Thierry is starting to hallucinate and the fever will cause him to start convulsing soon…" she cautiously dropped her tone of voice. "When will you go see Klaus?"

Marcel's deadly stare caused shivers on her but that was all she was getting from him, Aisha's sorrow only grew, she already lost so many members of her family today yet she knew Marcel wasn't caving.  
With a gloomy turn she prepared to leave Marcel alone to digest the horrible aftermath of a hasty move against Klaus but Marcel's grave voice hauled a freeze from her.

"Cut Caroline off and everyone in her coven."

Aisha narrowed her eyebrows heavily but the words wouldn't leave her open mouth.

"Let it be known that from now on, she no longer has my protection, neither of them do." Marcel icily said without moving away from the balcony.

* * *

The peace in her sleep was striking to watch and he truly pondered staying longer, to just lay there and hold her closely to him, but sadly to ensure that peace she borrowed from him in her sleep, Klaus had obligations.  
He took the scent her soft curls tickled him with and kissed her head before moving away from her back, Caroline remained motionless like she was satisfied with the security of his bed alone.

Surely he would sulk less if he made the connection that she was only responding to the way his scent was all over her, subconsciously she was replacing his physical presence with the scent of his shirt, his pillow and his sheets.

* * *

Tyler was entertained by a bottle and a glass, he didn't need much company tonight but he still smiled when he saw Klaus. "Hey, I'm shamelessly using your bar for happy hour."

Klaus left him at ease and even joined him in the sofa. "Tonight my blood and my bourbon are for free."

Tyler sadly filled his glass with a caramel-yellow mix, he clenched his jaw at odds with the idea that he wasn't a werewolf for the time being. "Your blood wouldn't by any chance heal a curse, would it?"

Sinister like the devil, Klaus smiled. "Far from it…" within the blink of an eye he snapped Tyler's neck. "It will however improve you."

* * *

**Soundtrack:**

Not a bad thing -  _Justin Timberlake_

Gonna get it –  _Alexz Johnson_

No need to worry –  _The Feelers  
_  
Red Voodoo –  _Sammy Hagar feat Vic Johnson (Acoustic version - Lite Roast)_

Take me -  _Tiësto feat. Kyler England_  (Acapella version)

R U Mine? -  _Arctic Monkeys_


End file.
